Changes likely for the HK Sevens

Vernon GUNASEKERA reporting from Hongkong

RUGBY: In the aftermath of Sri Lanka's defeat at the seven-a-side Rugby tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) Dilroy Fernando expressed the hope that the National Selection Committee would make changes in the Sri Lanka team for the forthcoming Hongkong Sevens 2006 International Rugby tournament which is to be held in Hongkong next week.

The Sri Lanka squad of 12 players for the sevens was due to be named yesterday afternoon.

At the recent Melbourne Games Sri Lanka went down to Australia by 73-0, England by 61-0 and Cooks Islands by 43-0. Consequently Sri Lanka also suffered defeat at the hands of Uganda in the quarter-finals of the Bowl Tournament.

In this game the Lankans who demonstrated their power better than in the matches and were leading 12-7 at the interval. But in the second session they could not produce the same power and Fernando said "Australia and England are fully professional sides. If any one thinks that we can defeat them we have another think coming."

"We could have won our game with Uganda. Our weakness in tackling was the major setback during the whole tournament. Even when we had possession of the ball we could not properly use it. There was a lack of commitment on the part of our players", Fernando further said.