The Sri Lanka men’s rugby sevens team ended up in third position with a resounding 40-12 win over Philippines in the third place play off of the Asian Rugby Sevens Tournament played at the Happy Valley Football ground, Hong Kong on Saturday after leading 21-7 at half time.
Winger Naveen Henakankanamge opened scoring for the Lankans with a superb try which was converted by Srinath Sooriyabandara. This was followed by two more tries by Sudam Sooriyarachchi and Dinuk Amarasinghe with Sooriyabandara adding the extra points to both tries. Philippines reduced the deficit through a converted try by Donald Coleman. After half time Danusha Dayan scored a fine try followed by two more tries by Buddhima Piyaratne (one) and Sudam Sooriyarachchi (one) of which one was converted to give the Lankans a morale boosting win having been knocked out by host nation Hong Kong by 0-31 in the Cup Championship semi final.
The Sri Lanka women’s rugby team clinched the Plate Championship with an impressive 22-10 win over Thailand. Dulani Pallikondage scored two superb tries for Sri Lanka dashing through over 50 metres while Theekshana Liyanage scored the other two tries for the Lankan lasses.
In the plate semi finals the Lankan women beat South Korea by 21 points to 15 helped by two superb tries by Dulani Pallikondage and Wasana Weerakkody made a 50 metres dash to score a dazzling try in the last minute to snatch victory for the Lankans after trailing 14-15.
