The Sri Lanka Men’s Team had to settle for fourth place in the 2022 Asia Rugby Sevens Series second leg, which concluded at the Namdong Asiad Stadium in Incheon, South Korea yesterday.
After they were knocked-out from the Cup Championship semi-finals, the Sri Lankan Tuskers went on to play in the consolation final but ended up losing the third-place playoff 7-24 against the Philippines.
Sri Lanka were trailing 0-12 at one stage but Skipper Srinath Sooriyabandara produced a magnificent, converted try to reduce the deficit to 7-12 at half time.
However, Sri Lanka’s chances of a comeback after the turnaround was completely dashed when the Philippines found few open spaces in their opponents’ defence to score twice and secure the third place of the tournament.
Earlier, Sri Lanka suffered a similar fate in the Cup Championship semi-finals as they lost to South Korea 14-31 after the scores were level 14-14 at half time.
Sri Lanka were trailing 0-14 after just three minutes of play but two beautiful tries from Mithun Hapugoda and Anjula Hettiarachchi brought them back into contention with Sooriyabandara and Tarinda Ratwatte converting one try each.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s Tournament, Sri Lanka’s hopes of at least winning the Plate Championship was shattered when they lost to Hong Kong 7-43 in the final encounter. The Sri Lanka Women, of course, had raised their hopes of winning the Plate after recording a thrilling 17-14 win over Malaysia in the semi-finals, courtesy of a brilliant last-minute try from Dulani Pallikondage.
Later in the tournament, Japan also produced a last-minute try to edge out China 19-14 in the Women’s Cup Championship final while Hong Kong came from behind to beat South Korea 19-12 in the Men’s Cup Championship final.
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