New Zealander Matt Lee believes Sri Lanka has the mental toughness and ball winning capacity to raise the bar at the Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) Division I semi-final when they lock horns with Philippines on May 29 in Chinese Taipei.
“We have to go up another two levels if we want to compete next year (in the top three) when you go up. At this stage our focus is Philippines,” said Sri Lanka rugby head coach Lee eyeing a potential final clash with hosts Chinese Taipei or Singapore on June 1.
The Malaysian tour has been a learning curve for the new-look Sri Lanka squad, according to Lee who formerly coached them.
“They performed very well. We had lot of guys unavailable so we had to get a new bunch of inexperienced players. I felt the Malaysia tour gelled the boys as well. First game was against predominantly Europeans and young up and coming Malaysian boys. Second game was a tough one psychologically playing against a few Fijians. We should have probably won it. Unlucky with a couple of referee calls which could have gone our way. But we had enough chances to put points on the board. Again it was a learning experience,” said Lee.
“The young captain (Omalka Gunaratne) was very good. He led from the front on the field and off the field. There are lot of characters in the team which is a good thing,” said Lee pleased to have former Sri Lankan players Viraj Prasanna and Fazil Marija as assistant coaches.
“They are great experienced ex-Sri Lankan players. Their knowledge has been very good for the boys,” said Lee taking many positives from the tour.
“We know that we can get possession because our scrum was very dominant. Our line out was good. Goal kicking was very good from Samuel (Maduwantha) and Thilina (Wijesinghe). There are just a couple of areas we have to work at,” he said such as decision-making in crucial areas especially inside the 22.
“We got a bit anxious. We were not patient enough. We should have kept it with the forwards for another couple of punches. The young team is learning game management, how to control forwards and the backs,” said Lee who has experience in coaching development teams for Premiership at Wellington Rugby Union.
Asked whether lack of foreign players was a handicap for Sri Lanka, Lee said: “I think having foreign players to me is a mindset. They’ve got two arms and two legs. It comes down to the mentality of the players. Their mental toughness which we are just trying to build onto the boys. I think early on they were sort of mindful of the big guys but once they grew into the game they knew they can contend and they looked more confident,” he said drilling in them the philosophy of “hit them hard and don’t fall”. How did they adapt from club to international rugby since there were 21 first timers on the whole tour?
“This is a problem. They go back to their old habits when they get tired, go back to their club level. The second phase of our campaign was about conditioning blocks. We are trying to put them under more pressure and play a bit quicker,” said Lee working on their strengths during training sessions held at CR and FC and residential camp at Sugathadasa Stadium before their departure to Chinese Taipei on June 26. “Philippines from what I can gather, they got a lot of Australian influence from Western half of Sydney. So they will be pretty structured but again we are confident the forwards will give us a platform to work on. And backs have been concentrating on holding and setting up better targets for the forwards,” he said.
“Our forwards can win ball. Goal kickers can kick from over 50 metres. As long as we play our maximum at the halfway and we do get good ball, our midfielders and back three can convert them into points,” he said though acknowledging their Achilles heel was in defence after leaking three tries in eight minutes against Malaysia.
“We clocked off for eight minutes. Malaysia lifted a little bit, went up another tempo. We had not done defence training because practice got cut down. As I said the Malaysian tour was a learning experience both on as also off the field. The team is bonding well. We have some outstanding forwards,” he said.
“Front five have to give everything. I think they will do well. Key is scrums, line out and rucking. If we can win all three we will be okay. Our threes will get the ball to run. We got pace with fly half Ashan Bandara and young winger Buddhima Piyarathane being outstanding,” he added reiterating the players are bonding well as a team. “It was a good team effort in Malaysia. I think when they started believing that they could beat Malaysia was in the second quarter of second half when they were gelling in,” said Lee who considers coaching the Sri Lanka “a big honour” after parting ways as Trinity coach by mutual agreement.
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