Sri Lanka out to clear final hurdle against Chinese Taipei today

Thushan JAYASURIYA

The Sri Lanka Youth Under 19 Rugby team, who are in a buoyant mood after their convincing 37-15 win over Singapore will go flat out for victory when they confront Chinese Taipei in their Asian Rugby Youth Championship match at Havelock Park today at 4.45pm.

The victory today for the Lankans will enable them to get promoted to division one of the Asian Championship in 2013 and play alongside elite teams Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong from which the first three will qualify to play in the 2015 junior world cup.

However, the Sri Lankans should not take Chinese Taipei lightly. The lads from Chinese Taipei were off to a fine start where they led 10 - nil at the breather but a superb fightback by Malaysia saw the scores read 10 all at the final whistle before a penalty tie breaker enabled them emerge victorious by 1-0

The strength of the Sri Lankans are their pack. Skipper Randika Alwis has been a source of inspiration to his teammates with his fiery loose play ably supported by Eroshan de Alwis,Lahiru Pavithra, Lochana Ekanayake, Kumendra Dharmadasa and Arun Kumar.And the lankan “eight” should maintain their dominance in the loose.

They also have a fine halves combination in Richard Dharmapala and Rimzi Jamaldeen who had a good outing against Singapore with the latter feeding threes at every opportunity.

Winger Heshan Nuwarapakshage and Centre Thisila Karunatilleke stood out with some daring runswhile Full Back Danusha Dayan formed the overlap on several occassions to have the Singapore defence guessing.

The Chinese Taipei’s forte are their speedy three quarters - The Halves combination of Cheng Sang and Chih Cheng hit it off smoothly which saw some superb running by Centres Yung Hsiang Lin , Ling Sheng Chang and speedy Winger Yu Wen Tseng.

The teams

Sri Lanka – Eroshan de Alwis(Royal), Lahiru Pavithra(Royal), Insaf Mohamed(Trinity), Randika Alwis (Captain, Trinity), Lochana Ekanayake (Dharmaraja), Kumendra Dharmadasa (Isipatana), Ganidu Lakshan (Isipatana), Arun Kumar (Isipatana), Richard Dharmapala (Science), Rimzi Jamaldeen (Royal), Uditha Prematilleke (Isipatana), Thisila Karunatilleke (Trinity), Hirantha Perera (Isipatana), Hashan Nuwarapakshage (Science), Danusha Dayan (St.Anthony’s, Kandy)

Chinese Taipei – Tai Ting Yeh, Yu-Chi Sen, Pao Ching Liu,Chun Jen Sung, Yu Wen Huang, Jui Yu Ko, Teng Chiu, Che Hsuan Hsu, Cheng Tsai, Chih Hao Cheng, Yu Wen Tseng, Yung Hsiang Lin, Ling Sheng Chang, Teng Huang Yu, Cheng Hsuan Tsai.