Three schoolboys in Sri Lanka ‘Sevens’ rugby pool

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Three outstanding schoolboy ruggerites have been included in the Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens pool in preparation for the Carlton International Rugby Sevens which will be worked off at the Sugathadasa Stadium on November 28 and 29, 2009.

Dharmaraja’s Darshana Etipola and Kingswood’s Roshan Weeraratne both of whom excelled in the Youth Rugby Asiad in Hong Kong and Isipathana winger Vishwamithra Jayasinghe who missed the Youth Rugby Asiad due to injury have bene included in the pool along with four other new players - Nuwan Chamara and Dinusha Chathuranga (CR and FC) and Kandy SC’s Buddhika Thalagampola and Sameera Silva.

Former Sri Lanka ‘Sevens’ skipper Pradeep Liyanage and Saliya Kumara who missed the Shanghai Sevens due to injury make a welcome return to the pool with Liyanage tipped to take over the captaincy for the Carlton Sevens.

The 21 member pool will go into training from today under the watchful eyes of newly appointed coach Imthisham Marikar assisted by former Sri Lanka and ex-Hong Kong and China coach George Simpkin.

Asian Heavyweights Japan and South Korea along with China, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia host nation Sri Lanka along with four other countries will take part in the 12 nation tournament.

The Sri Lanka ‘Sevens’ rugby pool Pradeep Liyanage, Saliya Kumara, Chamara Vithanage, Buddhika Thalagampola, Sameera Silva, Dilip Selvam, (all from Kandy SC), Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Samantha Lakshan, Niranjan Wickremaratne, Suranga Pushpakumara, Raul Jayasuriya (all from Navy), Ashen Karthelis, Dushanth Lewke, Lasintha de Costa, Nuwan Chamara, Dinusha Chathuranga (all from CR and FC), Sharo Fernando (CH and FC), Saliya Handapangoda (Army), Roshan Weeraratne (Kingswood), Darshana Etipola (Dharmaraja) and Vishwamithra Jayasinghe (Isipatana).