Sri Lanka led by Kandy Sports Club’s Roshan Weeraratne beat a battling Philippines by 24 points to 13 in their opening match of the 2017 Asia Rugby Division I Championship played at Ipoh, Malaysia on Sunday.
At half time Sri Lanka led 11-0 off a try and two penalties. Sri Lanka’s 24 points came off one goal, a try and 4 penalties and Philippines off two tries and a penalty. All scoring for Sri Lanka was done by Kandy SC players Danushka Ranjan and Richard Dharmapala, a try each and Thilina Wijesinghe who made the conversions and put over the penalties.
Sri Lanka’s main aim in this competition is to climb to the top division of Asian Rugby. This game was the fourth between the two countries with a win-loss ratio of 2-1 in favour of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has lost once against the Philippines Volcanoes in 2012 in a crucial game that prevented them from gaining promotion to the top division.
The following year Sri Lanka was triumphant winning all three games that saw them in the top tier. In 2014, however, the campaign was a disastrous one, and they were pushed back to Division I after four losses.
Since 2015 Sri Lanka has been hovering around the Division I segment, despite wins against average sides and losing some important games. Even if Sri Lanka reach the top, the task of remaining there will be a challenge against high-riders Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Sri Lanka are ranked 41st in the world and Philippines 57.
Referee: Lawrence Wilkinson (Hong Kong), assistant referees: Taku Otsuki (Japan) and Abdul Hannan (Singapore).
In the second match of the day defending c]hampions Malaysia beat UAE 36-22.
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