The Sri Lanka Rugby team led by Yoshitha Rajapaksa will kick off the proceedings of the HSBC Asian5Nations Division I Rugby Tournament in Manila, Philippines with their game against Chinese Taipei on Sunday (15).
The national players were under the watchful eyes of former England player Phil Greening for more than a month.
They were drilled well taking lot of pain to mould the inexperienced three quarters as the experienced Kandy SC three-quarters Fazil Marija, Pradeep Liyanage and Gayan Weeraratne kept away from practices.
Rizly Ilyas commenting on the issue said: “With the limited number of players attending practices and with the arrival of the coach we got the best out of the talent available. Though the team is inexperienced in international exposure, we are very happy with the coach and how it will all work out. Most of the Kandy SC players pulled out from practices. Further we have all the confidence in the leadership of Yoshitha who led the outfit to the Malaysian Sevens Bowl championship”.
He added: “We hope to end in the first two in Division I category and hopefully we will gain the necessary promotion next year. We are also thankful to the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) for arranging a warm up game for Sri Lanka before the important tournament matches on Sunday”.
Sri Lanka national rugby players lost all three matches at the HSBC Asian5Nations Top 5 segment last year.
Sri Lanka was beaten heavily by Japan but fought well against Hong Kong and Kazakhstan in lost games.
They tied against the United Arab Emirates game at 13-all in Colombo.
After Sunday’s game Sri Lanka will take on Singapore and will meet the hosts Philippine.
Sri Lanka and the Philippines set up a showdown for promotion to the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Top 5 competition in 2013 after winning their second round matches at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Wednesday.
Division 1 top seeds Sri Lanka and the Philippines, the third seeds, will come face to face on Saturday with the winner to join the likes of Japan, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan in the elite tier next year.
While unbeaten Sri Lanka and the Philippines are targeting promotion, for Singapore and Chinese Taipei the battle is to avoid relegation to Division II and the end of their involvement in the region’s qualifying process for Rugby World Cup 2015.
The Philippines Volcanoes are one of the most improved nations in Asia over recent years in their climb up the A5N pyramid, and the 34-12 win over Chinese Taipei was a family affair with three sets of brothers in the starting line-up.
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