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Friday Dec 13, 2024
Monday, 2 April 2018 00:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shamseer Jaleel
The Sri Lanka Sevens outfit under Sudarshana Muthuthanthri, which is already in the Gold Coast of Australia, will lock horns with Fiji, the Olympic champions and gold medal winners, in the opening game on 14 April.
Speaking to the media, Sri Lanka Sevens Head Coach Peter Woods said: “All top 16 world teams will be in action and we need to be mentally prepared for this. This tournament will be good experience for the lads ahead of the Asian Games 2018 later on in August where Sri Lanka will hope to claim a team medal for the very first time in Asian Games history.”
The Sri Lankan team selection process came in for criticism due to many of the selectors not being present at training. Sri Lanka Rugby, which is headed by Asanga Seneviratne, has invested heavily in the shorter version of local men’s and women’s rugby.
This tournament will be also a good yardstick for the Asian Sevens 2018 which will take place in Hong Kong, South Korea and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka team was accompanied to Australia by their High Performance Rugby Director Inthi Marikar.
Sri Lanka will need to finish within the top two in the group stages to qualify for the second round. Teams finishing third and fourth will be eliminated from the tournament for the last day.
April 14
