Sri Lanka under 20 team confront Thailand in their first match

By Ranjeeva Seneviratne

The Sri Lanka under 20 rugby team will confront Asia's sixth ranked team Thailand on December 14 in their first match of the Youth Rugby Asiad which will be worked off in Brunei from December 13 to 20, 2007.

The Lankan youth rugby team which will leave for Brunei on December 12 will take on last year's plate champions Hong Kong on December 17 in their second game with the finals scheduled for December 20.

Sri Lanka led by centre Gayan Weeraratne will play in division one of this year's tournament along with South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Guam. Last year's champions Japan will not take part in this year's tournament having already qualified to play in next year's Youth World Cup in Chile. The winner of this year's tournament will play in next year's Youth World Cup along with Japan.

The Sri Lankan youth rugby team took part in the Youth World Cup for the first time in 2001 in Chile by finishing third at the Youth Rugby Asiad in Colombo in December, 2000.

This year we have a well balanced team with a powerful set of forwards and a superb back division and we should be able to finish within the first three in this year's Youth Rugby Asiad" said coach Sanath Martis who is taking great pains to mould them into a formidable outfit.

Sri Lanka finished seventh in last year's Youth Rugby Asiad in Chinese Taipei - They lost both their Group matches to Chinese Taipei (10-19) and South Korea (19-48) and were relegated into the shield competition but gained some consolation by clinching the Shield Championship by beating Singapore by 34 points to 23 in the final.

The 24-member Sri Lanka squad for the Youth Rugby Asiad

Prop Forwards - Thilanga Gunatilleke (Dharmaraja), Andrew Jegan (Wesley and Havelocks), Sathya Ranatunge (Trinity)

Hookers - Bilal Hassen (Royal, B. Abysinghe (Vidyartha)

Lock Forwards - Sean Wanigasekera (Trinity), Zaffer Jahn (Wesley and CH and FC), Chanaka Galappathy (Nalanda)

Flankers - Gayan Ratmage (Kingswood), Poornaka Delpechitra (St. Peters), Imran Noor (St. Peter's).

Number Eight - Sashika Jayawardena (St. Anthony's) Thilan Bulner (St. Peter's)

Scrum Half - Shanaka Peters (Wesley)

Fly Halves - Roshan Wijesiri (St. Anthony's), Chanaka Chandimal (Vidyartha and Air Force)

Centres - Gayan Weeraratne (captain, Kingswood), Harsha Weerakkody (St. Peter's), Damith Udayanga (Isipatana), Dinusha Chathuranga (Isipatana)

Wingers - Kusal Rankothge (St. Anthony's), Chula Susantha (Kingswood).

Full Backs - A. N. Hettiarachchi (Dharmaraja), Reza Mubarak (Isipatana and CR and FC)