Lees full of praise for young Tuskers

Asia Rugby Championship 2019 Division 1

By Shamseer Jaleel and Madushka Balasuriya

Sri Lanka Rugby’s head coach Matt Lees was pleased with the performance of his young charges in the recently concluded Asia Rugby Championship Division 1 in Taipei, singling out the leadership skills of Captain Omalka

SL Rugby head coach Matt Lees

Gunaratne in particular. While the team finished third in the tournament, that achievement was nevertheless an impressive one taking into consideration the fact that 16 out of the 23 touring players were making their debut tour at XV’s rugby.

“Overall I’m pleased with the development of this group of young men who have gelled together to form a solid unit, as we build depth towards the future with players who want to play for their country,” said Lees, speaking to Daily FT.

“Our young captain is still learning his role both on and off the field, but he will only grow with more exposure to this role and his core positional role as a player. We have a good leadership group, and with the assistance of the management and coaching staff at all levels, it will surely help mould him into a true leader.”There were two defining games in the tournament which Lees made note of, a chastening 22-39 defeat to the Philippines and a dominant 72-17 win over Taipei. Lees felt that in the Philippines game his side had been complacent at key moments in the game. Indeed, Sri Lanka conceded tries at the start of each half and another on the stroke of half time. The one just before the break was particularly galling, conceded soon after the concession of a penalty in their own half. From the resulting penalty Philippines kicked the ball down field and four phases later scored to take 15-10 lead at the break.

“After conceding early, the boys settled well and remained competitive. Even when we lost a player to a yellow card we managed to score a try with 14 men. Unfortunately we let them in with a try just on halftime, then soon after the turn around they scored again, which let us down badly. We scored two late tries, but it was too little too late to make a comeback after the huge deficit we conceded early in the game.

“The main takeaways are that we conceded too many penalties, made slow starts at the beginning of each half, and conceding some soft tries. 

We also need better game management from the playmakers who are still learning how to read and manipulate opposition defences, be it from set or phase plays and from any zone/position on the field.”

Lees did however acknowledge the effort put in by his young team against a “bigger and technically stronger” opponent.

“Philippines were physically bigger and technically stronger, and very sound tactically at set pieces and the breakdown area. They also got a lot of narrow calls go their way, whereas we were not so lucky and got penalised when we had them under pressure and in good field/scoring positions. But we also did not capitalise on our seven clean line breaks which may have changed the result of the game. “Overall our back play was much improved and more polished than our two games in Malaysia, with better depth and alignment. We were just not able to win the inside shoulder line for support players, as they are still tracking outlines when breaks are made, which allows the defence into our passing lane.”

In terms of the Taipei game, Lees felt his young Tuskers showed that they had taken the lessons from the Philippines game onboard, though in the end it was their superior physical fitness which proved decisive.

“Against Taipei we reduced our errors and scored five tries in the first half and seven tries in the second. 

Though Taipei was a big made team we played well with a game of running rugby, where we able to exploit the opposition’s lack of fitness.”

“I would like to thank my two coaching staff members Fazil and Viraj, and the fitness team, for the excellent support to help us work together as one team. 

The Sri Lanka Rugby Management team was also full of support for us which was a bonus,” added Lees.