Gayan Weeraratne to lead Lanka at Youth Rugby Asiad

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

The National Selection Committee of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union which met on Monday picked Kingswoodian Gayan Weeraratne to lead the Sri Lanka under 20 team for the Youth Rugby Asiad which will be held in Brunei from December 13 to 21, 2007.

Weeraratne who had an excellent season for his school was also a member of the Sri Lanka 'Sevens' pool which took part in the Singer-Sri Lankan Rugby Sevens conducted in Nittawela in September and was the vice captain of the Sri Lanka team which took part in last year's Youth Rugby Asiad in Chinese Taipei.

The National Selectors also pruned down the 40-member pool to 31 from which the final squad of 23 will be picked in the first week of December.

Sri Lanka will play in the Division one of this year's Youth Rugby Asiad along with Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Guam. The team will leave for Brunei on December 12 and will play their first match on December 14.

Last year Sri Lanka finished sixth with a solitary win over Singapore but this year they are expected to give a much better performance under the guidance of Sri Lanka Youth coach Sanath Martis assisted by Ananda Kasturiarachchi.

The Sri Lanka Youth pool includes 12 players who took part in last year's Youth Asiad in Chinese Taipei-Skipper Gayan Weeraratne, Bilal Hassan, Sean Wanigasekera, Zaffer Jahn, Sashika Jayawardena, D.B. Dissanayake, Imran Noor, Shanaka Peters, Roshan Wijesiri, Dinusha Chathuranga, Kusal Rankothge and A.N. Hettiarachchi.

The 31-member Sri Lanka pool for Youth Rugby Asiad

Prop Forwards - Thilanga Gunatilleke (Dharmaraja), Andrew Jegan (Wesley and Havelocks), Sathya Ranatunge (Trinity), Iranga Herath (Kingswood).

Hookers - Bilal Hassan (Royal), B. Abeysinghe (Vidyartha).

Lock Forwards - Sean Wanigasekera (Trinity), Chanaka Galappathy (Nalanda), Zaffar Jahn (Wesley).

Third Row Forwards - Gayan Ratnage (Kingswood), Sashika Jayawardena (St. Anthony's), D.B. Dissanayake (St. Sylvester's), Poornaka Delpachitra, Imran Noor and Thilan Bulner (all three from St. Peter's).

Scrum Halves - Shanaka Peters (Wesley), Roshan Weeraratne (Kingswood).

Fly Halves - Omar Hassen (Royal), Roshan Wijesiri (St. Anthony's). Centres - Gayan Weeraratne (Captain, Kingswood), Chanaka Chandimal (Vidyartha and Air Force), Harsha Weerakkody (St. Peter's), Damith Udayanga (Isipatana), Dinusha Chathuranga (Isipatana).

Wingers - Kusal Rankothge (St. Anthony's), Nishan de Silva (Nalanda), Chanaka Gunaratne (St. Anthony's) Chula Susantha (Kingswood), Sajeewa Madushanka (Central Province).

Full Backs - A.N. Hettiarachchi (Dharmaraja), Reza Mubarak (Isipatana).