‘I have no doubt Omalka will grow to be a great leader’

Veteran Kandy SC scrum half Roshan Weeraratne may have forfeited his chances of captaining Sri Lanka following his withdrawal from the Malaysian tour albeit due to personal reasons resulting in CR and FC number 8 Omalka Gunaratne being named to lead the side.

The Sri Lankan rugby selectors hit by non-availability of several selected players for the suddenly arranged tour during a period of turmoil in the country had no option but to promote Gunaratne, a former Sri Lanka Youth captain to the leadership role despite Weeraratne having a change of heart a few days later.

Weeraratne not only lost the honour of leading the national side but was excluded from the Malaysian tour which saw Sri Lanka fielding a fresher-laden side. However, Sri Lanka Rugby officials welcomed his return for training with the National squad in preparation for the upcoming Asia Rugby Championships.

“Roshan was not available for personal reasons. He will not be considered for captaincy,” said Rohan Abayakoon, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) Selection Committee in an interview with the Daily News. “Not only from Kandy, players from CR, CH and Havelocks were not available due to a combination of injuries, studies and personal issues. From the original squad chosen at least 12 to 15 players were not available.”

However, Abayakoon hailed the leadership qualities of Gunaratne.

“Omalka has shown tremendous potential as a leader. There are some players who when they take leaderhip responsibilities it affects their playing. But for Omalka it has helped him to play better. He has been a good leader off the field as much as on the field. Generally as a person, Omalka has very good values and qualities. All these things helped him develop leadership skills. He is still young, only 23. Someone like Omalka is a good investment. I have no doubt he will grow to be a great leader,” said Abayakoon, a former CH and FC and Sri Lanka Sevens captain.

Abayakoon said the two-match Malaysian tour came at an opportune time because Sri Lanka had been starved of international exposure for the last two years.

“The Malaysia tour was a very good undertaking because it really gave good exposure to this young side. About 70 per cent of the squad was 25 and under. It gave us opportunity to see the combinations. How the young guns will go because lots of these guys have only played club rugby. There is a big step up between club rugby and international rugby. It gave us a good idea whether some of these kids are ready or not. Otherwise we would have gone blind to the Asiad. In that sense there were a lot of positives from the tour,” he said.

Sri Lanka romped to a 55-14 win against the Malaysian Barbarians before losing the Test match against Malaysia narrowly 31-26.

“We’ve not played international rugby for two years whereas Malaysia has been focussing on XVs rugby for a long time. They had six expats - five Fijians and a Korean – and they’ve gone for a training camp in New Zealand. They also played Singapore in two Test matches before we went there. Considering all that for us to lose by only five points with the limited preparation we had, I think it was a good effort from the boys,” he said.

“Yes, there are a lot of areas we need to improve on. But I would put it down mostly due to lack of preparation. We had only two weeks to prepare of which one week got disrupted because of the Easter Sunday issue. Given all that it was quite a satisfactory tour,” said Abayakoon.

“Among the debutants, the two Army boys fly half Hashan Bandara and winger Sudaraka Dikkumbura were outstanding while Navy flanker Gihan Perera showed a lot of promise,” he said when asked to name players who stood out.

“Our set pieces were very good in Malaysia. I think that will be a great asset at the Asiad as well. We defended well individually but not with collective patterns. I think the coaching staff is working a lot on defensive patterns and that also will come good. There was lot of good ball carrying and line breaking, again individually. Those are areas probably which we can work on. We have pace in the side all round the park which is positive far outweighing the negatives,” said Abayakoon, a crack centre three quarter during his playing days.

“Another great positive is there are a lot of youngsters in the squad. There is lots of passion and pride in wearing the jersey which I see as a great positive. That is not to say the seniors don’t have it. There is more passion and energy which comes with it,” he said.

“We also have a young captain and a young leadership group. Seventy per cent of the squad can play for next four to five years. That’s a positive,” he added.

 

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