Late blow for Sri Lanka as Jason ruled out of Colombo leg

Sri Lanka sevens coach Matt Turner yesterday confirmed that his team will be without the promising talent of Jason Dissanayake for the all-important third and final leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens which begins in Colombo at the Race Course International Rugby Stadium today.

“Jason is injured so he’ll be replaced by Hirantha Perera,” Turner said yesterday.

Dissanayake, who played a key role in the first leg of the series, missed the second leg with an injury and was passed fit to play when the squad was announced on Monday, before being ruled out again with a last minute injury yesterday.

Sri Lanka open their campaign against Chinese Taipei at 1:12 p.m, before playing Singapore (4.08 p.m.) and China (7.04 p.m.) in their three pool matches tomorrow.

Turner said the permutations of the tournament—sri Lanka have to win the third leg, and hope Hong Kong do not make the finals, if they are to have a chance to be crowned overall champions—has not affected their preparations, and their first goal was to top the pool on day one.

“Our goal is to get through the first three matches and top our pool. Hong Kong’s progress hasn’t affected our preparations. They are the team in form and they are expected to top their group and make the semis, but we are not really worried about that,” Turner said.

“Being in Colombo and in front of a home crowd, we want to go out and win our first ever sevens title. We haven’t let it (Hong Kong’s progress) affect us,” Turner said.

The Sri Lanka Women’s team start their campaign against Hong Kong at 12:06 p.m., before taking on China at 2:40 p.m. and Singapore at 5:58 p.m.