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| Sunday, 6 October 2002 |
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South Korea thrash Sri Lanka 70/11 by DINESH WEERAWANSA ULSAN, Oct. 5. - Hosts South Korea came out with a superb second half rally to beat Sri Lanka by 70 points to 11 in the 'curtain raiser' match of the 14th Asian Games 15-a-side rugby tournament which began at the Ulsan Public Stadium, some 70 km off Busan here today. The mighty Koreans, who led 24-3 at the breather, collected their points from five goals and seven tries. Sri Lanka scored a try and put over two penalties. But it was Sri Lanka who scored first with a 40m penalty put over by fullback Nalaka Weerakkody early in the second minute of the game after a Korean forward was blown 'off-side'. However, Sri Lanka's joy was short lived as Korea scored first of their 12 tries of the match in the fifth minute through winger Hyoung Ki Kim after a beautiful three quarter move. Sri Lanka then got another chance to regain the lead through a penalty in the 12th minute but Weerakkody missed a 30m angular kick. Then came the best performance of the match by the Lankans, who held the far superior Korean pack for 20 minutes. The second Korean try came in the 25th minute when No.8 Yong Don Park fell over for an unconverted try. The Koreans then kept on pressing the Lankan line for another ten minutes. They enforced several scrums and took short taps off penalties but the Lankan defence stood firm until centre Chang Min Park scored and converted to make it 17-3 in the 32nd minute. The fourth try for the hosts was scored by fly half Hi Soo Yun while full back Jong Man Jun added the extra points to make it 24-3 by 'lemons'. South Korea went on offensive in the second half and launched a fresh attack. Sri Lanka failed to maintain the same rhythm and lacked staying power against the far superior Korean attack. On the other hand, Sri Lanka did not want to take a chance of injury risks as they wanted to keep their top players fit for the all-important last game against Taiwan on October 13, which would possibly decide the bronze medal. Hence, Sri Lanka called Savantha de Saram, Sajith Mallikarachchi and Pradeep Basnayake to the bench when the second half was a few minutes old. Under the circumstances, the Koreans had little trouble in planting as many as eight more tries in the second half, of which three were converted. Joining the Korean try feast in the second half were winger Hyoung Ki Kim (two tries), fullback Jong Man Jun (two tries), winger Chang Yeul Choi, flanker Woo Sik Shin, centre Young Nam Kim and No. 8 Yong Don Park (one try each). Hae Kyoung Sung (2) and fly half Yun (1) made the conversions in the second half. The Koreans were equally good in both line outs and scrums and had total control in the game. Despite the host nation in action, there were hardly 100 spectators to watch the game. Among them were a group of 50 Koreans with Lion flags, cheering and motivating Sri Lanka team. The cheer squad had been arranged by the hosts to feel the visiting teams more homely. Among the few Lankans to witness the game were National Olympic Committee chairman Hemasiri Fernando and Director General of Sports, Milton Amarasinghe. Incidentally, the NOC chief's son Pavithra Fernando is playing in the Sri Lanka team as a flanker - he has created a name for himself with CR & FC. In the second match of the competition, Japan thrashed Taiwan by 76 points (eight goals and four tries) to 19 (two goals and a try) after leading 33-12 at half time. This match was refereed by Sri Lankan Dilroy Fernando, the former Isipatana, CR and Sri Lanka player turned IRB qualified international referee. |
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