Lanka's forwards gave a terrific display in Brunei, says Martis

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Sri Lanka's forwards gave a terrific display to outplay their counterparts in the loose but the three quarters failed to live upto expectations said Sri Lanka under 20 coach Sanath Martis after the Sri Lanka under 20 team returned to the island after taking part in the Asian Under 20 Rugby Championships in Brunei.

Our forwards especially Bilal Hassen, Zaffer Jahn, Ishan Noor, Thilan Bulner, Poornaka Delpachitra and Sean Wanigasekera gave a sterling display to outplay their bigger made counterparts in the loose but the three quarters except Skipper Gayan Weeraratne failed to impress.

In our second Group 'A' match against Hong Kong our forwards came up with a gallant display to outplay the formidable Hong Kong 'eight' but the three quarters could not make much headway as the halves combination of Chanaka Chandimal and Roshan Wijesiri failed to click.

As a result we lost a golden opportunity of entering the final losing to Hong Kong by 6 points (two penalties) to nil after trailing 0-3 at the breather," said Martis the former Isipatana, CR and Sri Lanka under 20 hooker.

Sri Lanka scored a hard fought 12-6 win over Thailand helped by two superb tries in the last 10 minutes of the game by Bilal Hassen and Gayan Weeraratne one of which was converted by Harsha Weerakkody but went down fighting by 0-6 to Hong Kong which had 10 expatriates in their ranks.

Then in the third place play off Sri Lanka scored a smashing 43 points (five goals, one try, one penalty) to nil win over Malaysia with Bilal Hassan (two), Gayan Weeraratne (one), Roshan Wijesiri (one), Thilan Bulner (one) and Buddhika Abeysinghe (one) scoring the tries of which four were converted by Reza Mubarak who also put over a penalty while Harsha Weerakkody added the extra points to one try.

Thus the Lankans finished in third position - their best performance in a Youth Rugby Asiad since the year 2000 when they finished third in the Colombo Youth Rugby Asiad.

Martis said that eight players form this year's team Ishan Noor, Poornaka Delpachitra and Harsha Weerakkody (all three from St. Peter's), Bilal Hassan (Royal), Dinusha Chathuranga, Damith Udayanga (both from Isipatana), Gayan Ratnage (Kingswood) and Thilanga Gunatilleke (Dharmaraja) are eligible to represent their schools next year and the experience gained by playing in Brunei should stand them in good stead when they play next year.

South Korea clinched the Cup Championship by beating Hong Kong by 15 points to 10 in the final and qualified to play in next year's Youth World Cup in Chile along with Japan who won last year's Youth Rugby Asiad.