“Our aim is to secure semi-final berth”: Dhanushka Ranjan

Shamseer Jaleel reporting from Hong Kong

Sri Lanka Sevens skipper Dhanushka Ranjan showed high promise and confidence with his touring squad which left the island two days back to Hong Kong in order to participate at the Asian Sevens rugby tournament which will take place on 2 and 3 September at Causeway Bay (Hong Kong Football Club) in Hong Kong.

The squad does not include some household names in Sevens rugby such as Asian famous Fazil Marija, Srinarth Sooriyabandara, Shehan Pathirana, Sudharshan Muthuthanthri, Anurudha Wilwara and Gayan Weeraratne, with all down with injury worries. This made the National Selections Committee Head Michael Jayasekera and his team bank on some young blood who performed remarkably well at the recently concluded Asian Rugby Sevens Under20 tournament in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Sri Lanka’s newly-appointed skipper Dhanushka Ranjan told Daily FT: “This is a different side compared to other sevens teams as most of the seniors are on the injured list for the first leg. I have lot of confidence in this team which is not only well balanced with experience but also with some young blood as well. These youngsters performed very well at the recently concluded Asian Youth Sevens Under20 in Hong Kong and Malaysia. We will take game by game and our aim is to find our semi-final spot and work from there onwards.”

He added: “I will play my normal game without taking leadership pressure on to me. First I need to perform well to support the team. We trained hard during the last two weeks with the squad of 19 and the final 12 players on tour know each other and posses very good understanding of each other which will help the team game at sevens.”

Dhanushka ended by thanking the Junior Coaching staff at Piliyandala Central, Preethi and Wasantha later on after moving to St. Peter’s, Martis, Colin and all the coaching staff at Havies and his present club Kandy who all are very supportive towards him. He ended thanking his family and promised to keep a mark and put Sri Lankan rugby on top in Asia at this annual sevens tournament.