Champaign Sevens rugby at Race Course

• Final leg of the Asian Sevens 2017 today and tomorrow

By Shamseer Jaleel 

Rugby dished out will be of super high quality when eight Men’s and an equal number of Women’s teams from Asia lock horns in the final leg of the Asian Sevens 2017 which will be worked off today and tomorrow at the Race Course Rugby Stadium in Colombo. 

Proceedings will kick off with the game between Asian rugby giants, Japan and Malaysia in the Men’s segment. 

The top two finishers (Men’s) in the series this year will book their berth for next year’s Hong Kong Sevens and Rugby World Cup Sevens (San Francisco). At present Sri Lankan men are at number 5 position in both legs and the Women’s outfit too on the same ranking after the Korean leg. 

Former rugby greats and life members of Sri Lankan rugby who did a yeoman service to the country will be honoured at this event.   

Men’s 

Sudharshana Muthuthanthri (Capt), Dhanushka Ranjan, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Sudam Sooriyarachchi, Omalka Gunaratne, Kavindu Perera, Richard Dharmapala, Tharinda Ratwatte, Danushka Dyan, Reza Rafaideen, Rehan Silva 

Head Coach: Peter Woods 

Manager: Rohan Chinthaka 

High Performance Director Sri Lanka Rugby Inthi Marikar 

  Men’s 

Pool A: Sri Lanka, South Korea, China, Taipei 

Pool B: Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines 

Day 1 

Vs South Korea     11/14 am 

Vs China                2/32 pm 

Vs Taipei                5/28 pm 

Sri Lanka Women’s

Ayesha Perera, Nadeeka Munasinghe, Dulani Pallikkondage, Theekshana Liyanage, Randika Kumudumali (Capt), Sanjeewani De Silva, Kumari Dilrukshi, Dasuni De Silva, Thanuja Weerakkodi, Wasana Weerakkody, Ayesha Kaluarachchi, Anusha Aththanayake. 

Manager: Thilangani Warakagoda 

Coach: Sudath Sampath 

Physio: Ruwani Deepika        

Women’s 

Pool C: Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea 

Pool D: China, Thailand, Singapore, Kazakhstan 

Day 1 

Vs Japan                11/58 am 

Vs Hong Kong       3/56 pm 

Vs South Korea     5/56 pm 

Honour of former greats and life members of Sri Lanka Rugby 

Summa Navaratnam, Y.C. Chang, Gamini Fernando, Malik Samarawickrema, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Dr Maiya Gunasekera, Anton Benedict, Brig Japuna Jayawardena, Michael Jayasekera, Saman Jayasinghe, Rohan Gunaratne, Group Capt Nalin De Silva, Chandrishan Perera, Jagath Fernando, Mohan Balasuriya, Japrakash Rudra, Ajith Abeyratne, Jeff Ratnam, Angelo Wickremaratne, Hisham Abdeen, Frank Hubert, S.P. De Silva, SSP Ibrahim Hamid (rtd), Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Neil Wijeratne, Kumar Abeywardena, Jaytissa Ratwatte and Ken Murray   

Posthumously honoured

Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Jeffrey De Jong, Didacus De Almedia, DIG Charles Wijewardena, Shafi Jainudeen and Tuan Mareen Bin Galiph