Woods and Groube end contracts with SLR

Monday, 12 November 2018 01:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) ended their contract with the head coach of the senior national Sevens team, Peter Woods from New Zealand, and his compatriot Nick Groube, who serves as the team’s trainer, after their two-year contracts expired in October.

Woods took over from former England Sevens player Matt Turner in 2016 at a difficult time. Woods almost took Sri Lanka to a medal, with them losing out to South Korea at the 2016 Asian Games in the bronze medal encounter. Sri Lanka finished fourth.

Afterwards, Sri Lanka participated in the Commonwealth Games in Australia, playing alongside Uganda, Fiji and Wales. They scored first against all three sides. Woods received significant support from High Performance Rugby Director Inthi Marikar, who later resigned from his position.

At the Asian Games Sri Lanka started off well before finishing third due to the fact that they sported a team without many senior players but dropped with the ranking in Korea (number six) and Colombo (number four). Sri Lanka Rugby will also end the services of trainer Groube, who spent a two-year stint working with the Sevens side as well as with the Fifteens side.

Sri Lanka will not have any Sevens commitments until March 2019 when they take part in the Borneo Sevens in Malaysia. The Asian Sevens 2019 will see three new countries hosting and the bidding process will take place later next month.

Hong Kong is very likely to retain their position. Sri Lanka, after missing out on the Asian Rugby Championship 15-a-side event, will take part in the Division I event. The head coach is likely to be appointed in the first quarter of 2019.