UAE Sevens – Sri Lanka have more questions than answers
Sri Lanka’s performances at the Asia Rugby Sevens Series third and final leg in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week was an absolute disaster as they failed to go beyond the Plate Championship semi-finals and had to settle for seventh place.
This contrasted with their excellent display during the second leg in Incheon, South Korea two weeks ago, where the Tuskers finished in a more credible fourth place behind the Cup winners Hong Kong, South Korea and Philippines.
Sri Lanka’s poor performance would no doubt ring alarm bells among the members of SLR National Selectors, who opted for two changes from the team that performed in the second leg in South Korea.
Even then, most of the players in this national squad have been playing sevens rugby for many years and they were expected to make it to the top three of the UAE leg under ideal weather conditions. In fact, the setting was perfect for the Tuskers to unleash their usual flair of rugby unlike it was in Incheon, where the weather was a bit cold, and the ground was soggy due to heavy rain for a better part of the tournament. But the Sri Lankan Team was in for a nasty shock as China pulled off a stunning 31-14 victory in the curtain-raiser Pool ‘A’ match of the tournament. No doubt, this result was a bitter pill to swallow for the Sri Lankan Team, who had defeated the same opponents 21-19 during the second leg in South Korea.
The real fact is that China had prepared for the third leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series almost two weeks ago while Sri Lanka arrived in the UAE just a day before the commencement of the tournament. It was very clear that most teams had fully studied Sri Lanka’s strengths and weaknesses after the second leg, and they were well prepared to face the Tuskers even more confidently.
This was well depicted in Sri Lanka’s second outing where they were humiliated 19-26 by a rejuvenated Malaysia outfit, who seemed to have done all their homework after having failed to win a single match during a dismal second leg performance.
Sri Lanka should certainly take a leaf from teams like the Philippines, who showed tremendous improvement to bag the Plate Championship while the UAE, with a brief history in sevens rugby stormed into the Cup Championship final before going down to Hong Kong 5-21
The only striking performance for Sri Lanka during the pool games came when they stretched the powerful Hong Kong side to the maximum before going down 17-33 after an exciting contest.
Sri Lanka had the consolation of scoring three tries in this tough game and that was heartening since they were annihilated 0-40 by the same team during the second leg. Even then, Sri Lanka’s overall performance in the UAE leg was not up to its mark as they struggled to keep their reputation as one of the long-standing rugby nations in the Asian region.