- Sri Lanka finishes 7th among 12 teams
Sri Lanka’s men’s rugby sevens team endured a disappointing opening leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens 2026 in Suzhou, China, finishing 7th among the 12 teams yesterday.
Coming into the tournament ranked third in Asia, Sri Lanka failed to live up to expectations despite showing flashes of their potential.
Sri Lankans made an excellent start to the tournament with a commanding victory over Kazakhstan in their opening pool encounter. Their pace, ball movement and aggressive defence produced a one-sided win and created hopes of a strong finish in the first leg.
However, Sri Lanka’s campaign quickly lost momentum in the remaining pool matches, suffering defeats to Korea and tournament hosts China in closely fought encounters where the results could have gone either way. The two losses left Sri Lanka third in their four-team pool.
Despite the setback, Sri Lanka advanced to the Cup quarter-finals as one of the two best third-placed teams. They were drawn against Japan, who controlled possession and territory throughout the contest to register a comfortable 17-0 victory and eliminate Sri Lanka from Cup contention.
Sri Lanka lost 29-19 to Thailand in the play-off round. They produced one of their best performances of the tournament to defeat Malaysia 36-5 and secure seventh place overall.
Sri Lanka’s women’s team also found the tournament challenging. Their only victory came against Malaysia during the pool stage, while defeats in their remaining matches saw them finish 11th out of the 12 participating teams, ahead of Iran.
The men’s team was captained by Srinath Sooriyabandara, while Peter Woods headed the coaching staff. They will be looking for a better performance in Japan at the Asian Games and the home second leg of the Asian series.
In the Cup competition, Japan defeated China and Hong Kong China overcame South Korea in the semi-finals. Hong Kong China then crowned an outstanding tournament by defeating Japan 19-7 in the final to lift the opener, while in the women’s final, it was Japan who beat hosts China 19/7. (SJ)
