Lanka’s Sevens bubble bursts in Nagoya

Sri Lanka Rugby’s (SLR) Sevens, bubble burst before the global audience and at the 20th Asian Games in Aich-Nagoya, Japan over the past weekend and the seventh-place finish is being viewed as a total failure by rugby analysts here.

The Srinath Sooriyabandara-led outfit had topped Group C with nine points having seen off the likes of Philippines 22-14, Singapore 33-17 and the UAE 17-5.

But, come the Knockouts they were beaten 19-12 by China in the last eight phase of the event, as the island nation’s medal hopes were dashed, after the SLR President Pavithra Fernando had single-mindedly focused on steering his players to an elusive medal success at the competition.

The outcome of the Asian Games Sevens programme for Sri Lanka, reflects the same pattern as two months ago (29-30 Aug) when they ended in the seventh spot at the first leg of the Asia Rugby Emirates Series in China.

On that occasion the Lankans had lost to Kazakhstan 49-7, 19-17 to Korea, 26-19 to China, 17-0 to Japan, and 29-19 to Thailand, while beating Malaysia 35-5 in the seventh-place play-off.

The SLR in the wake of that setback in China fired its national Sevens head coach New Zealander Peter Woods and appointed ex-national star Fazil Marija, (with Nigel Ratwatte) as head coach for the Asian Games-but disappointingly and alarmingly the result has remained the same.

Rugby critics putting things into context question where rugby in this country is heading after the nation had been among Asia’s top three in 2014 and 2018 Asian Games (fourth place both times), but having nosedived to seventh behind Hong Kong China, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Philippines as of 2026.

According to a few rugby analysts the malaise within the Sri Lanka Sevens team lies in its inconsistency in performance, poor ball retention, indiscipline and selfish play, while some who are blunt in their assessment are of the view that it would be time for a few of the so-called legacy players to step down.

“I think some of the legacy players are really over the hill. Soori (Sooriyabandara) and Kavindu (Perera) did not contribute at all. Time to look to the next generation of players, and build a new team from scratch,” was the view of a noted rugby pundit, when asked to dissect the team’s debacle in Japan.

He added “In my view we did so well last year with Gibby (Rodney Gibbs) and Inthi (Marikar) overseeing the Sevens programme, and this year we fell away from that progress and success. This is very disappointing to say the least. The entire year build up with tours to UK, France, India etc., to target a medal at the Asian Games and to see them falling very short is unforgivable.”

Another rugby critic stated that Sports Minister Sunil Kumara Gamage, National Sports Council (NSC) Chair Priyantha Ekanayake and National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) head Asanga Seneviratne, should equally be held accountable for the national Sevens team’s recent drawback.

He insisted that it would be time for the current SLR President to open his eyes to the ground reality of Sri Lanka’s position in the Sevens arena following their insipid display in Japan.

According to critics it is incumbent upon the SLR leadership to address shortcomings promptly before even a country like India could leapfrog their neighbours before long with the Tuskers continuing to stagnate big time.