Nilfer confident ahead of tougher Al Ain test

By Ranil Prematilake in Al Ain – Dubai

Mild weather conditions with less humidity (around 25 Celsius) will suit the Sri Lankan rugby sevens contingent that landed in Dubai late last night. A journey of a couple of hours to the region of Al Ain followed where the action is to unfold from tomorrow at Al Ain Amblers RFC sporting facility consisting of four rugby playing fields. 

Sri Lanka coach Nilfer Ibrahim speaking to the ‘Daily Mirror’ just prior to the departure sounded a confident man. “Our aim is to play in the final. However, it is not going to be easy and will certainly be tougher than the South Korea assignment. The manner in which we cope with the physicality of the Hong Kong and Chinese sides will have a major impact on the final result. We have to play to our strengths and play wide as much as possible and not get drawn into close contact, which turned out to be our downfall in the Philippines game a couple of weeks ago,” said the sevens expert. 

Meanwhile the “Daily Mirror” reliably learns that Asian giants Japan, which fielded a second string side in Korea, have included five new players who are already a part of an extended Japanese squad preparing for the Dubai World Series 7’s event (already in Dubai) slotted for the first weekend of December. 

Commenting from a player perspective Ibrahim was happy with the squad given to him and relieved on the full recovery of experienced campaigner Nigel Ratwatte, who suffered a minor calf strain (‘smash’ in rugby parlance) in Korea. When contacted by the ‘Daily Mirror’ the stylish three-quarter confirmed his coach’s target: “We would go all out to improve on our position. Training went off quite smoothly.

China is a solid side although we won in Korea. A strengthened Japan is going to be a threat. The side that featured last time was more of a development squad. During the last few days we focused on areas of concern such as securing possession at kick off and re-starts” said Ratwatte.   

Aaqil Jamaldeen now based in Dubai is expected to be the sole Sri Lankan referee in the match official panel, with Dilum Deeshana unavailable due to study commitments in Japan.    

Photo: Sri Lanka sevens coach Nilfer Ibrahim