Sri Lanka rugby stars saved by a whisker at corporate show
The cream of Sri Lanka's rugby Sevens stars were saved from
humiliation with a last ditch try at the 45the Mercantile Sevens at the
CR and FC ground Longden Place in Colombo yesterday.
Making up a team representing the defending champs MAS Holdings, the
big guns just managed to cross the line playing against Access as Sri
Lanka winger Sandun Herath followed a punted ball picked up and scored
under the post for an easy conversion after sprinting some 40 metres to
level the scores 14-14.
The match capped a spectacular second day's proceedings in which 40
matches were worked off.
The MAS team had Sri Lankan exponents in the calibre of Fazil Marija,
Anuruddha Wilwara, the Weeraratne brothers of Gayan and Roshan, Nigel
Ratwatte, Ashan de Costa, Saliya Kumara, Shehan Pathirane, Mohamed
Sherriff and Herath.
MAS Holdings, Dialog A, Access and John Keells A qualified for the
semi finals that will be worked off today. The Access team also had Sri
Lankan players in Saliya Handapangoda, Vishva Jayasinghe, Shenal Dias,
Jason Dissanayake, Dhanushka Ranjan, Richard Dharmapala and Srinath
Suriyabandara. For the first time in many years the Mercantile Rugby
Sevens kicked off without a sponsor with organisers having to pocket out
Rs.2 million for the three-day event which has to cover floodlights
(Rs.250,000) and referees fees amounting to Rs. 350,000.
Dialog sponsored the Sevens for ten successive years.
Schoolboy team to contest club rugby Sevens
For the first time in the history of inter-club rugby Sevens, crack
schoolboy players will come together to contest the event on July 25 and
26 in Colombo.
They will represent a team called the Agoal Academy headed by former
Sri Lanka player Dilroy Fernando.
Some of the players expected to line up for selection are Kevin Dixon
(St. Peter's), Tariq Salih (St. Joseph's), Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya (St.
Joseph's), Vimukthi Rahula (St. Joseph's) and Bhanuka Gamage (Royal).
They will come under the care of coach Sanath Martis who coached
Royal to the League title this year. |
