Sri Lanka rugby team continued its dismal performance, losing to Taiwan and Malaysia to finish sixth while Japan underlined its rugby supremacy to win the gold medal at the Asian Games seven-a-side rugby tournament concluded in Guangzhou today. Sri Lanka’s only consolation for the day was a hard-fought 21-17 win over Thailand after leading 14-5 at half time.
Earlier in the morning, Sri Lanka rugby team lost to Hong Kong 14-19 after trailing 7-12 at half time. But Sri Lanka played better rugby in the second half during which both teams scored a goal each. Saliya Handapangodage scored both the tries for Sri Lanka in either side of the half time and both of them were converted by skipper Radhika Hettiarachchi.
In the next consolation round game, Sri Lanka had an unimpressive 21 points (three goals) to 17 (one goal and two tries) win over Thailand. Captain Hettiarachchi, Anuruddha Walpola and Vishwa Jayasinghe scored a try each. Hettarachchi added extra points on all three occasions. In the play off game for the fifth position, Sri Lanka, after leading 7-5 at half time, were beaten by Malaysia 7-27. While restricting Sri Lanka a single scoring opportunity, Malaysia ran down four tries in the second half to make a magnificent comeback as Sri Lanka ate humble pie. Malaysia scored their points from one goal and four tries while Sri Lanka had a solitary goal, scored by Anuruddha Walpola and converted by skipper Hettiarachchi.
Asian rugby heavyweights Japan lived up to expectations to win the gold medal with an exciting 28 points to 21 victory over Hong Kong. Japan got off to a solid start and led 21-7 at half time. Hong Kong dominated the second half’s play but Japan’s early advantage was good enough to secure the gold.
South Korea won the bronze medal of the men’s rugby sevens, when they edged out China by 21 points to 14 in the play-off match for the third place. The gold medal in the women’s seven-a-side tournament of the Games was won by Kazakhstan which had a close 17-14 win over China in the final after trailing 5-7 at half time.