Mixed fortunes for Sri Lanka sevens rugby team

The Sri Lanka Sevens Team had mixed fortunes on the first day of the first ‘Leg’ of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series in Petaling Jaya Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday.

The Sri Lankans scored a convincing 21 (three goals) to nil win over Kazakhstan after leading 14-0 at the breather. In their first match skipper Fazil Marija, Sandun Herath and Srinath Sooriyabandara scored a try each with Fazil Marija converting two and Srinath Sooriyabandara adding the extra points to one try after Lankans led 14-0 at the breather. In the next game against mighty Japan, Sri Lanka went down fighting by 14 points (two goals) to 29 (two goals, three tries). Srinath Sooriyabandara scored both tries for Sri Lanka and converted one try while Marija convered the other try. Sri Lanka will confront host nation Malaysia in the ‘Cup’ championship quarter-final at 10.20 am today. Japan led 19-7 at half time.

Sri Lanka lost the services of veteran Pradeep Liyanage and Sudharshan Muthuthanthri due to injury and their replacements Roshan Weeraratne and Sajith Saranga were due to fly to Malaysia last night.