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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Sri Lanka back in Hong Kong International Sevens by Lal Gunesekera After a lapse of two years, Sri Lanka, have at last re-entered the Hong Kong International Rugby 7s arena which is to be staged on March 31, April 1 and 2. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU), Dilroy Fernando, told the Sunday Observer that they (the SLRFU) received an invitation for the event from the International Rugby Board (IRB) directly and will be competing in view of the Commonwealth Games at Melbourne in March and also the Asian Games later in the year. Sri Lanka last made an appearance at the Hong Kong 7s in 2003 where they lost all games (0-38 to Scotland, 0-50 to South Korea, 0-54 to South Africa and 7-38 to USA in the Bowl quarter-final). Fernando also said that due to the Hong Kong International 7s, the SLRFU will request the IRB to play their Rugby World Cup (Asia qualifying) games with China and Hong Kong at end of April and mid-May respectively. Earlier, Sri Lanka were to play China at Longden Place end March and Hong Kong in Hong Kong in April. In the earlier RWC qualifying games, Sri Lanka beat India (54-17) at Bombay and Thailand (35-14) at Longden Place last year (2004), while this year (2005), the Lankans beat Thailand (48-38) at Supunbari, Singapore (34-17) at Longden Place, lost to Kazakhastan (19-25) at Almaty, but won the 'return' with the Kazakhs (24-12) at Longden Place. Sri Lanka are now ranked 6th in Asia behind Japan, South Korea, Arabian Gulf, Hong Kong and China. Now, they have to win both games with Hong Kong and China if Sri Lanka are to gain promotion to Division I and play their qualifying matches with Japan and South Korea during the Asian Championships to be held in Colombo next year (2006). |
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