Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) Deputy President, Group Captain Nalin de Silva expressed his confidence that Sri Lanka has a great chance to finish among the top-three teams at the 19th Asian Games Sevens Rugby Tournament, which begins in Hangzhou, China on Sunday.
The Sri Lankan Tuskers will participate in this 13-team tournament under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Flag as SLR are currently serving a suspension from World Rugby from May 2023.
“We have a very promising team bringing in a good balance of maturity, experience as well as young energy under the leadership of Tharinda Ratwatte, who is a highly disciplined, well experienced and a skilful player,” de Silva told the Daily News yesterday.
“Together with matured players such as Adeesha Weerathunga , Kavindu de Costa, Anjula Hettiarachchi, Ramesh Fernando and Gemunu Chethiya, we strongly believe that they can create an impact and place the team within the first-three teams in Asia,” de Silva stressed.
However, De Silva, who was a member of the 1984 Hong Kong Sevens Bowl champions team, said that lack of match-exposure at the highest level will be the biggest concern for the side.
“I feel they lack game exposure, but due to their attitude, discipline, skills and mostly believing in themselves and the team spirit, they could yet show positive results at this event,” he emphasised.
“Our new national coach, Dushan Lewke, being a well experienced schools and club rugby coach has done a tremendous job to raise the standard of individuals and team skills to uplift the morale of the team,” he said. “We are proud to say that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel enabling our seven’s rugby team to represent our nation at the Asian Games.”
“This was as a tremendous collective effort by the Secretary, Director General Sports (Ministry of Sports), President and the Secretary General of the NOCSL, Sports Medicine Unit, National Sports Council, National Sports Selection Committee and the Administrative Staff of SLR headed by Executive Director, Hassan Sinhawansa,” de Silva added.
The post We will target top-three finish at Asian Games – Nalin de Silva appeared first on DailyNews.