Leaky Defence Hurt Tuskers in Birmingham

By Harsha Amarasinghe 

Sri Lanka 7’s rugby team were only able to secure a sole victory during the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, England.

The Tuskers finished 14 despite playing some entertaining rugby losing to some of the top teams such as New Zealand and England as well as Samoa, Uganda and Jamaica while the only win was recorded against Zambia. 
Throughout the tournament Sri Lanka were able to produce some quality tries as they were brilliant offensively. 
Their second try in the play-off final against Jamaica was such a thrilling touch down as it even brought a huge smile on the face of the referee as Buddhima Piyaratne crashed over the line. 

Piyaratne unsurprisingly was the highest try scorer for Sri Lanka with four in six matches while Nigel Ratwatte also chipped in with three tries.

Former Trinity captain Tarinda Ratwatte also scored three including that memorable try against New Zealand in the opening match which had the Sri Lankan bench jumping up and down. 

Captain Srinath Sooriyabandara, though he didn’t score as much, was easily the best player for Sri Lanka throughout the tournament with his skills and pace until he suffered an injury during their game against Zambia. 
It is fair to say these four Kandy players lit up the tournament, but how on earth did Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) and then Minister of Sports Namal Rajapaksa not allow these players to take part in the Asian Sevens last year? 
Although Sri Lanka were extremely fine on the offense, they leaked far too many tries for a team that has been playing rugby for such a long time. 

Teams like New Zealand, England, Samoa and even Uganda scored freely against Sri Lanka. 

There was the obvious physical mismatch between Sri Lanka and other top teams, but if Sri Lanka to have a better chance against quality sides, they will have to work a lot on the defence. 

Based on the performance, it looked like Sri Lanka didn’t have much information on the oppositions which is a big disadvantage especially if you are playing with slight physical disadvantage. 

The coaching staff would have to work harder on getting as much data as possible on oppositions and put the tactics in place based on that. 

Tuskers miss Ranjan 

Danushka Ranjan has been one of Sri Lanka’s best 7’s players since the start of his career having scored some memorable tries against top teams such as Fiji. In fact it was under his captaincy Sri Lanka finished second overall in the Asia Seven Series few years back. 

However, the Kandy centre has had a personal tragedy to deal with over the last couple of years and was not able to play a single rugby game at any level.

What is going to happen to his career from here at the age of 29 remains to be big question mark, but there is no doubt that Sri Lanka Rugby has clearly missed the former Peterite.