Lankan Development squad lose in the Shield finals
Sri Lankan Development side led by Kandy Sports Club's Nilufer Ibrahim came up to the finals in the Shield segment at recently concluded 2nd Kings Cup Tournament in Thailand. As this game was an Asian and European affair which attracted 16 teams the national selectors decided to send a Development Squad because of the International Rugby Boards (IRB) Dubai and George Sevens were soon to follow and the main concerns were the injuries and travelling involved.

Wimal Senanayake the Manager of the touring team spoke to The Sunday Times and told that the ground was very hard, there were lot of injuries for players who took part in this Tournament and very fortunately none of our players were seriously injured. Wimal Senanayake had lot of praise for Nilufer Ibrahim and Vithanage who were outstanding and were ably supported by Kishan Musafer, Kapila Silva and Sanjeeva Dinesh.

The Sri Lankan team lost their first round matches to Asia's number 2 Chinese Taipei 51-0 and followed by Arabian Gulf 38-5 and Netherlands 57-0. In the second round they were in the Bowl Quarter finals and narrowly lost to Belgium 15-10. In the final round they beat Singapore in the Shield Semi finals 21-12 and in the finals went down to a strong Taipei team 47-12 after being led 19-12 at lemons. -SJ

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