Sri Lanka crush India 49-7 but lose to Hong Kong 7-31

Vernon GUNASEKARA Reporting from Hong Kong

Sri Lanka making a desperate bid to qualify for the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens from the Asian region crushed India by 49 points to 7 before losing 7-31 to host nation Hong Kong in their two games down for decision, at the on-going RWC Asian Qualifiers here at Hong Kong Football Stadium yesterday.

In the match against the formidable Hong Kong team bolstered by expatriate players, Sri Lanka never stood a chance and in the end were tamed sans a fight.

The winners collected their points from three converted tries and two tries, while the islanders could only reply with a converted try of their own. The solitary try for Sri Lanka was grabbed by Isipathana MV schoolboy prodigy Sajith Saranga in the third minute of the second half after his skipper Pradeep Liyanage had made a fine break in mid-field before releasing the former, for his maiden international try for his country.

At the interval, Hong Kong led by 24 points to nil. At the start of the game, heavy rains greeted both teams but clearly Sri Lanka failed to put in their first-time tackled in the first half.

However, the tourists recovered well in the second-half to give the home side a semblance of a fight, before the latter sped away to post a facile win in the end.

The match against India was quite in contrast to what was witnessed in the game against Hong Kong, as Sri Lanka whipped the wooden-spoonists (49-7).

But, the day’s biggest upset was created, when Chinese Taipei ranked 7 in the IRB International Sevens pecking order, dumped the much fancied Korean team (21-7).

With that stunning win, Chinese Taipei have occupied the second slot in Group ‘B’ while Sri Lanka who were relegated to the second position in Group ‘C’ will confront Korea, later today.

In the game against India, Sri Lanka collected all their points from seven converted tries, with Mohamed Sheriff being the cynosure of all eyes with four touchdowns. Saliya Kumara, Sajith Saranga and Lasintha de Costa also collected a try each, while Kumara, Sheriff and Chula Susantha shared the conversions between them.

The winners led 28-0 at half-time.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Women’s rugby team also competing in the same tournament, lost to China (40-0) before coming unstuck against Arabian Gulf (17-27), respectively. Although, Sri Lanka went down to Arabian Gulf, they managed to run them close for much of the game. This was evident in the fact that Arabian Gulf was only able to score a converted try in the second-half having led 22-0 at half-time.

For Sri Lanka, Sandika Hemakumari scored two tries, while Mayuri Chathurika scored the other.

Sri Lanka rugby referee D. Nimal, was also seen at the Hong Kong Football Stadium having been invited by the International Rugby Board (IRB), to officiate in the tournament.

The IRB has chosen five international referees to blow in the RWC Asian Qualifiers, while Nimal is the only Sri Lankan. The others are from Japan and Hong Kong.