Lanka will confront Japan and Indonesia

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Plate Champions of the Mumbai Rugby Sevens Sri Lanka has been drawn into pool ‘D’ of the final leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens which will be worked off at the Singapore Cricket Club grounds, Singapore on November 2 and 3, 2012.

Sri Lanka will confront Asian Heavyweights Japan in their first match and will then take on lowly placed Indonesia in their second game on the first day.

The Singapore Sevens is also the Asian qualifier for the 2013 Rugby World Cup in Moscow in which three Asian teams will take part. Sri Lanka has a good chance of qualifying for next year’s World Cup if they enter the quarter-finals of the cup championship of the Singapore Rugby Sevens.

Sri Lanka came up with a stupendous performance to clinch the plate championship of the Mumbai Sevens by beating Malaysia by 24-17 in extra time after the scores read 17-all at full time on the first day Sri Lanka went down fighting to mighty Hong Kong by 12-17 in a pool match with Hong Kong eventually going onto win the cup championship with a smashing 28-7 win over Japan.

It was the second time that the Lankans bagged the plate championship at the Asian Rugby Sevens having done so at the Shanghai Sevens one month ago with a superb 22-7 win over Thailand in the final.

Sri Lanka’s Sevens Rugby has reached great heights since Englishman Ben Gollings took over as coach.

Gollings the highest points scorer in IRB Sevens Rugby has improved the skills of the players, harnessed their talent and moulded them into a formidable outfit who are capable of matching upto Asian heavyweights Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.

[The draw]

Pool ‘A’ – Hong Kong (1), Philippines (6) Guam (11)
Pool ‘B’ – Korea (4), Thailand (7), Singapore (9)
Pool ‘C’ – China (3), Malaysia (8), Kazakhstan (10)
Pool ‘D’ – Japan (2), Sri Lanka (5), Indonesia (11)