Sri Lanka Sevens rugby team to play Kenya today

Friday, 28 March 2014 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Naushad Amit in Kowloon, Hong Kong The Sri Lanka Sevens rugby team under the leadership of Fazil Marija underwent its final training session yesterday in Kowloon before facing off Kenya at 5 p.m. local time in their first game of the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens today. Sri Lanka competes under Pool ‘A’ alongside defending champions Fiji, Kenya and Wales, three teams that will be tough to overcome. Sri Lanka’s next two games against Fiji and Wales are scheduled for Saturday afternoon. This year’s sevens will play host to the HSBC Sevens World Series competition amongst the 15 core teams on the series and Asia’s third-ranked side Sri Lanka, and a simultaneous 12-team international qualifier competition, the winner of which will be promoted to the HSBC SWS in 2014/2015. The core tournament will have four groups, A, B, C and D with four teams each in them. The remaining 12 teams will battle in three different groups E, F and G in the qualifier competition for next year’s Sevens World Series. Fiji is tipped to be the hot favourites and will enter their most preferred hunting ground at Kowloon. They have won the Hong Kong Sevens 14 times and will be brimming with confidence after the recent feats at Tokyo Sevens last week and Dubai Sevens in November 2013.

With two tournament wins apiece in the HSBC Sevens World Series each by South Africa, New Zealand and Fiji, it is hard to look beyond these three as the frontrunners for Cup honours this weekend. South Africa who have been drawn with Australia, France and Spain in Group B, are still seeking their maiden cup championship in Hong Kong. England are the top seeds in Group C, which comprises Canada, Argentina and Portugal. DJ Forbes and his New Zealand team arrive in Hong Kong on the back of their worst finish on the World Series this season – beaten into fourth place by England in Tokyo. The prospect of a New Zealand team out to redress last weekend’s performance will surely upset the other core teams as the Kiwis look for an 11th cup title in Hong Kong and their first since 2011. New Zealand are in Group D alongside the United States, Scotland and Samoa. The 12-team World Series qualifiers tournament will see four teams making their Hong Kong Sevens debut; American Samoa, Barbados, Chile, and Trinidad & Tobago, bringing the total number of teams to have participated in the tournament since 1976 to 57. Others competing in this segment are hosts Hong Kong, Chile, Cook Islands, Italy, Japan, Russia, Tunisia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. A total of 70 matches will be played as part of this year’s tournament beginning from tomorrow evening to Sunday night. In addition to the main tournament and the World Series qualifier, a women’s tournament is underway and the finals of that competition will be played on Sunday prior to the cup final. On Thursday the hosts Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) celebrated the arrival of the 2014 edition of the famous Hong Kong Sevens with a clash of cymbals and a performance of Yueju, the Cantonese Opera. The skippers of the participating 28 teams posed for an official photograph at Harbour City in Kowloon. The Sri Lanka Sevens team led by Marija will also comprise Dinusha Chathuranga, Mithun Hapugoda, Nigel Ratwatte, Gayan Weeraratne, Saliya Kumara, Sandun Herath, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Sudharshana Muthuthantri, Shenal Dias, Yoshitha Rajapaksa and Dhanushka Ranjan. Lavanga Perera, Shehan Pathirana and Anuruddha Wilvara are in as stand-bys. Sri Lanka is coached by Niloufer Ibrahim while Rohan Chinthaka is the manager of the side. Amith Jayasekara is on tour as the physio.