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by Lal Gunesekera

Sri Lanka have one more hurdle to overcome - against Hong Kong on May 14 at Hong Kong, in their attempts to move into the third slot in the Asian rugby scene behind Japan and South Korea. Yesterday at Longden Place, they defeated an unfit and lethargic looking China outfit by 30 points (2 goals, 2 tries, 2 penalties) to nil after leading 15-0 at half time in their Rugby World Cup (RWC) Asian qualifying game.

The Sri Lankans who were playing a 15s game after five months since beating Kazakhastan in Colombo, played a terrific game. They steamrolled past their opponents, who never offered any resistance. The entire Sri Lanka side played really well - they had plenty of possession and territorially too were on top. However, four tries were insufficient, but it was great to see the systems of disunity not showing among themselves after the "Simpkin-Weerakoddy" affair.

Was this the best team that China could have pitted against Sri Lanka? Remember it was a World Cup qualifier. I understand that the players who won the Bowl title for China at the Hong Kong 7s earlier this month, was not on the flight to Colombo. The side that arrived in Colombo on Wednesday included 12 soldiers from the Chinese Army. They were thoroughly unfit. Perhaps the hot and humid conditions they faced in Colombo could have had an affect on their players, but it was certainly no excuse.

Anyway, Sri Lanka after their triumphs over Singapore and Kazakhastan earlier in the qualifying games, could pose a serious threat to Hong Kong next month. Lets wait and see if George Simpkin and his team could deliver the goods and play with Japan and South Korea in the Cup category of the Asian Championships to be staged in Colombo in November.

In the second minute itself, Sri Lanka, took a 7-0 lead with flanker Sean Wijesinghe touching down on the left after forcing a line-out and scrum earlier. T. A. Silva converted. Ten minutes later, they scored again, through a simple 10-metre penalty by T. A. Silva.

Then came the other flanker Dilanka Wijesekera who made a slicing run off a scrum inside China "22" for scrum-half Amjad Buksh to put the finishing touches. Silva missed a difficult conversion, but obliged with a 25-metre penalty in the 25th minute to lead 18-0 at lemons.

On resumption, second-rower Anuradha Dharmatilleke touched down under the posts in the 12th minute after Buksh had followed a "grubber" from midfield and with Silva kicking correctly again, Sri Lanka led 25-0.

Then in the 37th minute, fly-half Asanga Rodrigo, hit the gap and touched down far left, but Silva missed a difficult conversion and for Sri Lanka to win 30-0.

Japan's Taize Hirabaizi refereed.

Chief Executive Officer of Caltex Lubricants, Kishu Gomes was the chief guest and was introduced to both teams before the kick-off.

National Flag?

Where was the Sri Lanka national flag? At the beginning of the match on the scoreboard, there was the national flag of China as well as the flag of the International Rugby Board (IRB), but our own national flag was missing. However, after sometime, the SLRFU flag was hoisted.

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