Srinath leads Lanka to Bowl success

Howard Hinton Sevens in France 

Sri Lanka’s national Sevens rugby team led by veteran Srinath Sooriyabandara clinched the Shield Championship title at the Howard Hinton Sevens Tournament in Tours, France on Sunday (31 May).

The Lankans staged a wonderful second-half comeback to beat the French club side Pyla Sevens Rugby with a final score of 28-21.

However, the Tuskers had faced a difficult start, trailing 7-21 at the turnaround. The tourists had then displayed terrific grit, scoring three unanswered tries which were all converted to totally flip the script and secure the trophy.

The road to the Shield success had nevertheless required a major bounce-back from the island- nation.

The Tuskers had a disappointing start, losing their opening fixture 7-26 to SCA Sevens and then experiencing a narrow extra-time loss to Mauritius (19-24) in the Bowl Qualifiers.

Sri Lankan then moved into the Shield segment, where they bossed the game early on to defeat Euskadi (Basque Country) 22-15.

Sooriyabandara was well supported by his deputy Janidu Dilshan and the rest of the players and this tournament provides invaluable international exposure for the Lankan squad against elite European competition.

The triumph in France by the Men’s Sevens team comes hard on the heels of the historic double success recorded by the Lankan Men’s and Women’s Sevens teams, respectively at the inaugural CASA Sevens held in Uzbekistan last month.

Source: The morning