Sri Lanka women win Asian 7s Plate
Sri Lanka beat Singapore by 17 points to 5 to win the Plate
championship and secured the overall fifth place at the Asian Sevens
Series Women’s Tournament worked off in Bangsaen, Thailand yesterday.
Sri Lanka scored one goal and two tries after leading 10-nil at the
short whistle. Singapore was only successful in scoring an unconverted
try in the second half. Sri Lanka, determined to win the fifth position
of the tournament, excelled in both attack and defence in the crucial
game after losing two preliminary round games. The Lankan lasses,
coached by former Sri Lanka star turned commentator Chandrishan Perera,
pulled their act together from the start. Nippy scrum-half Nadeeka
Munasinghe scored the first try mid left. Two minutes later winger
Ayesha Perera beat a couple of Singaporean defenders with her blistering
speed to score but skipper Thanuja Weerakkody failed with the conversion
for the second time. The half-time score was taken at 10-0.
Ayesha Perera once again got in to action after the lemons and made a
powerful run from 22m line, made an excellent offload to skipper
Weerakkody who galloped to scored under the post. Rukshani Ariyasena
made no mistake with the conversion which brought the score to 17-0.
At the latter stages of the game the Sri Lankan team was penalised
and was brought down to five players. That enabled Singapore to make
their only scoring of the match a few minutes away from the long
whistle.
Singapore managed to score a consolation try in the last few seconds
of the game, but could not prevent Sri Lanka registering a morale
boosting victory.
In the rest of the tournament Thailand beat Guam 17-0 take the bowl
championship, Philippines defeated Chinese Taipei to take the 7th place.
Hong Kong defeated Kazakhstan 17-10 to secure the third place while
Japan will meet China in the cup final scheduled for today.
Sri Lanka women’s team is also scheduled to participate in the second
and final leg of the same tournament scheduled to take place in October
in Mumbai, India. |