Sri Lanka dare to dream of World Cup

Sri Lanka has launched a major campaign to develop rugby on the island with the president's eldest son leading efforts to build a team that can qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Japan. Last week more than a dozen foreign players participated in a seven-a-side tournament which was seen as a successful attempt to expose domestic players to top-class international-standard rugby.

Though Sri Lanka is famous for its cricket team, rugby has been on the island since 1879, during British colonial times, and is still played by nearly 50,000 school boys today at 100 clubs. “We have given our players an opportunity to play alongside international stars,” Namal Rajapakse, the national team's hooker and the son of President Mahinda Rajapakse, told AFP during the Carlton Super 7s tournament.

“This is the kind of experience our players need. If we train properly from now on, we can qualify for the World Cup,” added Namal, 26, who helped organise the event and is a member of parliament.

“It is all about putting everything together and we now have a plan to move forward.” Sri Lanka's full 15-player side, who have never made it to a World Cup, are ranked a lowly 46th in the world and missed out on a spot in the top tier of this year's Asian Five Nations tournament, won by Japan.

The president Rajapaksa is a keen fan and Namal's younger brother Yoshitha, 24, is the national skipper.

“I was surprised and excited by the standard of the players, how well supported rugby is, how it has some great people involved, how the schools game is huge,” Greening, a former England international who retired in 2005, said.

“Sri Lanka has a great deal of talent that needs to be nurtured and allowed to develop,” he told AFP. “It is an exciting time to be involved in Sri Lankan rugby. Sri Lanka has such great resources that other unions would envy.” Getting to Japan in 2019 is hugely ambitious, but one sign of hope was the thousands of fans who packed stadiums for the Carlton Super 7s games in Kandy and Colombo.

Among the overseas stars playing in the event, which finished on Sunday, was New Zealand Sevens captain D.J. Forbes, Sevens Player of the Year Tomasi Cama, England's Dan Norton and Matt Turner. Eyeing more competitive rugby in Sri Lanka, Namal Rajapakse says lessons can be learnt from the Indian Premier League cricket: foreign and domestic players in a short-format game, with some off-the-pitch razzmatazz.

A multi-million-dollar project is under way to convert a disused racecourse in Colombo into an international rugby venue, new sponsorship deals are being signed and the government has arranged tax breaks for foreign players and coaches.

AFP