By A Special Sports Correspondent

Sri Lanka has a golden opportunity to work its way up in the international rugby scene when it clashes with Kazakhstan in the cup championship of the Asia rugby men’s division 1 tournament in Colombo on Saturday (May 4).

Sri Lanka has already sounded a warning to all teams at the tournament with a smashing 45-10 win over India in a game where the host team dictated terms to the opponents during the major portion of the encounter. Sri Lankans were very clinical in this game and chose the easiest method to finish off this challenge. The host team played wide using the entire width and breadth of the ground; which meant they were not going to risk their players in unwanted contact rugby.

If the latter option was taken it would have only amounted to massaging the egos of players and losing focus on the final which, according to the tournament draw, was offering the Sri Lankans a heavy physical contact game. Sri Lanka’s opponent on Saturday, Kazakhstan, is a dangerous opposition and prefers a heavy forwards battle up front. Sri Lanka is rated 44th in world 15-a- side rugby while Kazakhstan is rated 64th. The winner of the Cup Championship will be elevated to the Asia Men’s Rugby Championship next year; a tournament that features only the best four teams in Asia.

It is likely that Sri Lanka will start with seasoned players like Dushmantha Priyadarshana and hooker Azmir Fajudeen in the front row and play Hirantha Perera and Hirusha Nethmina early in the game, as back division players, to rattle the opponents. All these players came in as substitutes in the game against India where the host team raked in seven tries out of which five were converted.

Much is expected of back division players like Tharinda Ratwatte, Sudaraka Dikkumbura and fly half Thenuka Nananyakkara who gave the Indians a torrid time by putting their fleet footedness to good use. It is also interesting to see whether the Sri Lankan coaching staff sticks with hooker Pulasthi Dissanayake (who had two touch downs in the semi-final match) or will opt to start with the powerfully built and intelligent front row player Fajudeen instead.

Though Sri Lanka played well in terms of running the ball at every given opportunity the side also showed severe potential in the scrums, line outs and driving forward when the players grouped in a maul formation. The last time Sri Lanka featured in a Men’s Division 1 tournament was in 2019 where they won the third place play off beating Chinese Taipei 72-17.

Qatar, which team many thought was unlucky to lose the game against Kazakhstan, gets a golden opportunity to stay in contention for a podium finish when it features with the other losing semi finalist, India, in the third place play off. Qatar lost a close contest against Kazakhstan and the difference between the two sides was a single try. The winner in that game Kazakhstan scored five tries against four by Qatar.

The teams:

Sri Lanka from: D. Priyadharshana, F. Abdullah, S. Fernando, N. Maduranga, K. Costa, H. Perera, H. Nethmina, J. Fernando, P. Dissanayake, C. Silva, S. Anthony (Captain), R. De Silva, A. Weerathunga, T. Chathuranga, L. karunathilake, H.Jansen, T.Nanayakkara, S. Dikkumbura, T. Ratwatte, A. Madusanka, D. Ekanayake.

Kazakhstan from: A. Gadaborshev, A. Imam, G. Litinov, T. Maksimenko, T. Timoshin, N. Ivanov, O. Tursunbek, M. Magomedov ( Captain), A. Lukmanov, D. Akymbakov, A. Lymar, M. Petukhov, A. Nazhibayev, A. Belashov, D. Sumskiy, D. Kazibekov, R. Shipitsin, Y. Khromov, J. Muradov, A. Suerer