SRI LANKA WILL FIND GOING TOUGHWITH SECOND STRING SIDE
One of the senior officials from Kandy SC said that out of the 14 player’s names only 4 of them attended practices from the inception. Further it’s up to each player’s fundamental right to attend or not.
With 10 of the Kandy players not attending practices has left the Sri Lanka rugby team and its coach in a tough situation when they face Taipei and Philippines who are all out to get promotion in to the Asian Five Nations Tournament Top Division in 2013. Currently the side under Yoshitha Rajapakse are hard at practices with a pool of 37 players and the final 24 touring party will get contracted and paid Rs. 50,000/- a month till May 2012. Out of the 37 already Anrududdha Wilvara (Havelocks SC) and Chanaka Chandimal (Navy SC) are nursing injuries.
One of the senior officials from Kandy SC said that out of the 14 player’s names only 4 of them attended practices from the inception. Further it’s up to each player’s fundamental right to attend or not. We cannot force they have given valid reasons for not attending. In brief they don’t have any trust on the union and they need to be fair in all of their actions he ended.
Last week the SLRFU drafted the following players in to the pool.
Desmond Wilson and Asitha Perera (Both from Up Country Lions), Eranga Swarnatilake, Kosala Tissera and Rehan Weerakoon (All from Navy SC), Gayan Ratnayake (Army SC), Lasintha De Costa, Arjuna Bopitiya (both from CR & FC), Charith Seneviratne (Airforce), Thushitha Samarasekera, Rajiv Perera and Leeke Egle (All from Havelocks SC)
The Sri Lankan team will leave the country for two warm up games against Hong Kong before playing Taipei in the opening game of the tournament in Manila-philippines.
The following are the participating teams and their brief introduction in HSBC Asian Five Nations Division I2012. Out of the 37 players 22 of them are from Havelocks and Navy in total.
Singapore
Singapore after being the Asian top five competitions in 2009, and will be keen to get back into that elite company once more. But the Rugby Lions will be hard-pressed as they come up against three difficult opponents in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Chinese Taipei. Last year they lost to South Korea 58-19 in the promotion play-off in Division One after having entered the final defeating Malaysia 52-17. But with the format changed into a round-robin competition, the going will be tougher for Singapore in 2012. They were also beaten by Sri Lanka in 2010 in the finals of the same format.
Sri Lanka
Having got relegated from Asian top 5 to division one despite of having three home games last year the Sri Lankan outfit will fire all cylinders in order to grab the top slot in 2013. Led by Navy SC skipper Yoshitha Rajapaksa and Phil Greening (England) as their Head Coach this year around. This will be a big tester for Asanga Seneviratne and his men who are heading Rugby in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had got the longest tradition of organized club rugby in Asia, dating back to 1879, (just eight years after the founding of the world’s first rugby union in England). Sri Lanka will kick off with a game against Chinese Taipei.
Philippines
Playing in home grounds the hosts are most successful team in the Asian Five Nations next to Japan. The Volcanoes have lost only one match in the past four years, losing to South Korea in Division One in 2011. Australian coach Matt Cullen will be eager to put that result behind him as the Philippines go in hunt of promotion into HSBC Asian Five Nations in 2013.
His team, all made up of ‘heritage’ players – that is one parent or grandparent is a Filipino – comprises five bands of brothers, a record for any national team. Cullen will be hoping this sibling chemistry will help his side emerge champions in the Division One competition which will be played in Manila.
Chinese Taipei
Surprisingly relegated to Division Two in 2010, result from the 2010, Chinese Taipei fought back and won promotion last year - but just. They were given many anxious moments by a physical Iranian team in their opening game before squeezing through 34-31 in a game where both teams scored five tries apiece. It was a laudable comeback into Division One for Chinese Taipei, especially as they were blooding a brood of new players.
Chinese Taipei will face an early stringent test when they face Sri Lanka in their opening game in Division One before taking on the high-flying Volcanoes and finishing with a match against Singapore. With a proud tradition, they will be determined to stick around in Division One in 2013