Asian Rugby Championship Division I: Sri Lanka in search of JWRT 2018 Asian Qualification

By Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka Under 19 rugby outfit will battle it out against a strong Hong Kong outfit at the Racecourse rugby grounds today (10) in order to book their berth for next year’s Junior World Rugby Tournament (JWRT) Under 20 Asian Zone qualifications encounter. The return leg between these two teams will take place in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC) on 16 December.

National Selectors opted to drop five players from the initial squad of 30 players. The dropped players were Sudeera Gayantha (Isipathana), Harith Senanayake (St Thomas), Shanon Jenson (Kingswood), Dulanjana Piyatissa (Dharmaraja) and Gaveen Perera (D.S. Senanayake), while Tehan Seneviratne (St. Joseph’s) pulled out.

Meanwhile the Hong Kong outfit will be all out for their 5th Asian Rugby Championship title in tandem and Sri Lanka who were runner-up last year are expected give a good account of themselves at home before departing to the Hong Kong game. Further 10 of their players who represented last year for the visitors will be in action this year as well.

The game was earlier scheduled to be played at Havelock’s Sports Club but has now been shifted to Race Course. The match will kick off at 3 p.m. This encounter will be controlled by a leading referee from Japan with two assistant referees hired by Asian Rugby from Dubai.

Squad: Naveen Henakankanamage (Captain – S. Thomas’), Aveesha Priyankara (Vice Captain), Shaveen Ekanayake, Rishen Madena and Dilruk Dange (all from Trinity), Ashen Fernando (Royal), Dinesh Rodrigo, Mohamed Shabeer and Dinuk Amarasinghe (all from St. Anthony›s Katugastota), Vimukthi Gamage, Timira Amanda, Shashika Fernando and Zayan Sabar (all from Wesley), Suen Muller, Madushanka Perera, Chathura Seneviratne and Gemunu Chethiya (all from St. Joseph›s), Theekshana Dassanayake and Umar Mohideen (both from St Peter›s), Nipuna Tharaka (Dharmaraja), Harith Bandara, Randi Silva and Chamod Fernando (all from Isipathana), Lakshitha Ranaweera (Kingswood) and Ashan Madumadawa (Science).

Coaching staff: Rajeev Perera and Lasintha De Costa

Sri Lanka Rugby High Performance Director: Inthi Marikar

Hong Kong Squad: Mark Coebergh (Co-Captain, HK Scottish), Max Denmark (co-captain, HKFC), Jack Abbott (HKFC/South Island School), Paul Altier (Valley), Jake Barlow (HK Scottish/Hartpury College), Chau Siu-Fung (Tin Shui Wai RFC/Lingnan University), Chong Shun-hong (USRC Tigers), Mikkel Christensen(HKS/DB Pirates/West Island School), Jay Cooke (Kowloon), Alec Drew--Prior (HKFC/South island School), Oliver Duffy (Harrow), Liam Herbert (HKFC), Takamasa Hoshiyama (DB Pirates/Auckland University), James Karton(HKCC), Alexander Nisbet(HKS/Bath University), Oliver Overman (USRC Tigers/Nottingham Trent University), Gregor Ramage (HKS/Brighton College), Marcus Ramage (HKS), Thaddeus Summers (Valley/Australian Intl School), Callum Tam (HKCC), David Tang (HKFC/Baptist Uni), Sam Tsoi (Kowloon/City University), Ryan Walker (USRC Tigers/AIS).