Skipper ‘Muthu’ makes swift return

By Ranil Prematilake

A speedy recovery and medical clearance last evening sees the return of national sevens skipper Sudharshana Muthuthanthri for the 2nd leg of the Asian Sevens Series 2018, due to take place at the Namdong Asiad Rugby Stadium in Incheon, South Korea over the weekend (29th and 30th September).

Muthuthanthri missed out on the Hong Kong edition due to a wrist injury and was expected to be out of action for at least six weeks.

However, his speedy recovery is a blessing for the injury hit Lankan camp.

The 12-member touring squad includes a couple of new names in Nishon Perera, who looked the obvious choice for national coach Peter Woods in place of the injured Kavindu Perera.

Then comes the former Wesley schoolboy Shehan Dias, who would be making his national sevens debut.

The national selectors have left out Reyhan Silva who looked out of sorts in Hong Kong.

According to manager Rohan Chinthaka, the team is due to fly out on Thursday and land in South Korea on Friday morning.

This in turn would provide the team barely 24 hours of rest going into two days of sevens rugby against Asia’s best, aspiring the ambition of a World Series Sevens qualifying slot.

The 12 member squad is as follows:

Sudharshana Muthuthanthri (captain), Adeesha Weeratunga, Shehan Dias, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Danush Dayan, Kevin Dixon, Reeza Rafaideen, Dinuk Amarasinghe, Buddhima Piyaratne, Sudam Sooriyarachchi, Naveen Henakankanamage and Nishon Perera