Tuskers bank on youth for Asian Games Gold

Sri Lanka will field a fresher-laden yet a talented side for the 19th Asian Games Men’s Seven-A-Side Rugby Tournament, which will be played from September 24 to 26 in Hangzhou, China.

The Sri Lanka Tuskers will be competing in this 13-team tournament under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Flag as Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) is currently serving a suspension from World Rugby from May 2023.

“We have seven talented newcomers in this squad, and I hope that they will grab this opportunity to showcase their potential at this showpiece event,” Coach Dushan Lewke said before their departure to China.

“I think about nine players who participated in last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England are not touring this time and so this will give the freshers to cement their places in the Sevens Squad,” Lewke emphasised.

The 12-member Sri Lanka Squad has been training for nearly a month at the Racecourse Grounds in Colombo, under the guidance of Coach Lewke, who has a great amount of experience having served at CR and FC and Royal College for several years.

Sri Lanka’s opening Pool ‘B’ fixture will be against the Chinese Taipei at 10.25 a.m. local time and their second match against South Korea will be at 6.55 p.m. local time.

The Cup Championship quarter-finals will be played on Monday while the semi-finals, finals and the remaining ranking matches will be played on Tuesday.

The first day’s schedule:

10.00 a.m. – Philippines v Malaysia, 10.25 a.m. – Sri Lanka v Chinese Taipei, 10.50 a.m. – Singapore v Thailand, 11.15 a.m. – China v Afghanistan, 11.40. a.m. – UAE v Nepal, 1.20 p.m. – Hong Kong v Malaysia, 1.45 p.m. – South Korea v Chinese Taipei, 4.00 p.m. – Japan v Thailand, 4.25 p.m. – China v Nepal, 4.50 p.m. – UAE v Afghanistan, 6.30 p.m. – Hong Kong v Philippines, 6.55 p.m. – South Korea v Sri Lanka, 7.20 p.m. – Japan v Singapore, 7.45 p.m. – Afghanistan v Nepal, 8.10 p.m. – UAE v China.