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Asia Rugby Championship Division 1
Sri Lanka handed off hosts Taipei 72/17 in the 3rd place play off at the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1 in Taipei on Saturday. This was the worst defeat in the history of Taipei rugby against Sri Lanka. At the short breather Sri Lanka had scored 31 unanswered points and were in complete command of the game.
Sri Lanka’s tries were scored by Kavindu Perera (2), Dinuk Amarasinghe (2), and Sudaraka Dikkumura (2) while Omalka Gunaratne, Thilina Wijesinghe, Buddhima Piyaratne, Mithun Hapugoda, Reza Rafaideen and Yaqoob Ali, all scored one each. Wijesinghe also converted four tries, while Dinuk Amarasinghe and Prasad Madushanka were on target with one kick each.
For Taipei, Chung-Yu Lee, Wei-Chiang Sun and Wei-Ming Lin scored a try each.
Elsewhere, Philippines who beat Sri Lanka 39/22 in the opening game secured a Top 3 promotion in 2020 with a close 29/21 win over Singapore. Singapore ended the tournament on a high securing a well deserved 2nd place, while Taipei will be demoted to Division 2 in 2020. UAE, who secured a Division 1 berth last week, will play alongside Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore next year. Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka three quarter coach, Fazil Marija said: “We would have loved a win against Philippines but considering it was a very young side with nearly 17 debutants it was tough with less experience and exposure at Asian level. They had lot of heart, resilience and commitment to be proud of. I was happy with the backs play and the set pieces in the forwards, especially as we were against a very physical and more experienced side in the Philippines pack, while the win against Taipei was beyond expectation. There is a lot of enthusiasm and spirit and we need to keep building morale with this.”
Sri Lanka skipper Omalka Gunaratne said: “I am very happy with the performance of our young team. We had a lot of younger players and were sad to lose out to Philippines but in the end it was great with a huge win over the hosts.”
Sri Lanka will now get back into Sevens Rugby, wth the Asia Rugby Sevens Series kicking off in South Korea, then moving to China, and ending in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka will also be gearing up for 2023 Rugby World Cup qualification. And with another Olympic Games Qualification Tournament later this year in South Korea, Sri Lanka will be banking on youth and experience to take them to the next level in Asian rugby. (SJ)
Sri Lanka 72 points
Taipei 17 points
