Asia Rugby third leg in UAE: Sri Lanka to send only Men’s outfit

Srinath_Sooriyabandara leads Sevens oufit

Nilfer Ibrahim Head Coach

• Women’s team grounded due to ongoing inquiry over decamping by Captain in South Korea

Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) has decided to send only the Men’s outfit under Srinath Sooriyabandara for the third and the final leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens 2022 which will take place in Al Ain, UAE on 26 and 27 November.

Sri Lanka Men’s outfit who was at the Army Camp in Ganemulla at an Outbound training will return for their final training session today (23 November) before flying out on November 24 to UAE. The team is expected to be named today after the evening training session.

Both Sri Lanka Men’s and Women’s missed out on the first leg in Thailand but got the green light to participate under the National Olympic Committee (NOC) flag in the second leg which took place in South Korea. 

The National Men’s outfit ended on number 4 while the Women’s outfit who could win only one game ended on number 6 position out of the 8 teams. The Women's outfit will go through a proper training program and play a few sevens, tens and fifteen a side matches before the next tournament which will be the South Asian Games and Asian Games which is now postponed to 2024.

Soon after the Korean leg of the event Head Coach of the Women’s outfit, Saliya Kumara too resigned citing personal reasons but unfortunately there was no positive movement with the girls who looked a yard slower than the rest of the teams in Asia winning only their Malaysian encounter 17/12.

The Men’s went on to beat both China and UAE in their group encounters losing out to the winners of the Korean leg, Hong Kong. Playing in the Cup semi-final they lost out to the hosts, South Korea and in the play off for the third place they were well beaten by Philippines to end on number 4 in the 2nd leg.

In the Men’s segment Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, UAE, China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka will lock horns in the UAE which will be the third and final leg of 2022 shorter version of the game. Meanwhile in the Women’s it will be reduced to a seven teams event due to Sri Lanka not featuring. China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and the Philippines will play in the UAE.

In the first leg in Thailand, Hong Kong became champions beating Japan 36/19 while South Korea to Hong Kong showed that they are yard faster in the shorter version of the game with a close 19/12 win over hosts, South Korea. Meanwhile in the Women’s encounter China beat Japan 21/17 in Thailand leg while Japan bounced back to beat China in the second leg which took place in South Korea. 

This gives an interesting third leg in the Women’s segment with both China and Japan on number 1 position with 22 points a-piece. In the Men’s segment Hong Kong after winning both the legs are occupying number 1 position with 24 points followed by South Korea (18) and Japan (12). Sri Lanka after featuring in the second leg are at 7 points.

Official of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) said at the last Council meeting it was decided that the women’s team will not participate as there is an ongoing inquiry with regard to the decamping of the women’s captain in the 2nd leg of the South Korean tour and the Ministry of Sports have indicated that there are no funds to support.

In line with the current context of the financial constraints that the country and SLR is faced with and no support from Asian Rugby due to their suspension the current decision was taken.