Coach Ibrahim impressed with rugby squad

by a Special Sports Correspondent

Sri Lanka expects to send a squad comprising experience and budding youth for the rugby sevens event of the next edition of the Commonwealth Games, according to Coach Nilfer Ibrahim.

The soft-spoken Ibrahim has followed rugby in Sri Lanka for many years and knows the players inside out. “I’ve watched them grow up and make that transition from school rugby to club rugby and eventually the national side. There is just one player in this squad who is new to me and the others are known to me,” said the Sri Lanka coach whose appointment was ratified by Sri Lanka Rugby very recently.

Sri Lanka, or for that matter all other teams, doesn’t know who their opponents will be in the pool stage of the tournament because the teams haven’t been grouped as yet. That could be because most of the giant rugby-playing nations are, at present, contesting the ongoing World Series Sevens with the latest stop being England (May 28-29). Sri Lanka could be an unknown quantity at the Commonwealth Games and that could be an advantage too because strong teams love to study other opponents. Sri Lanka’s success records in rugby sevens are just a few. Their last appearance was at the Dialog Asian Sevens Series in 2021 where the islanders finished overall sixth.

Speaking about his appointment Ibrahim said that he accepted the offer made to him to coach the side largely because it’s a short-term assignment. “I love rugby and taking up coaching roles offered to me in the sport. I started coaching teams starting around 2007 and have been coaching to date. I have a personal dream as a coach and that is to see Sri Lanka qualify to make the quarter-final stage in an international rugby sevens tournament,” he said.

Sri Lanka might have a long way to go in the international sevens scene. Most players in Sri Lanka are semi-professional and others are doing day jobs. “Getting the players to contest an international event is a challenge in itself. We have just about two months to prepare, but we have to remind ourselves that the Commonwealth Games is a tournament where the standard is very high. The sevens version of the game features big in the world rugby calendar and I’ve observed that the top players now kick less in seven-a-side rugby. We have to adopt that theory and first focus on the pool games,” said the Sri Lanka coach.

The Sri Lankan squad comprises some experienced players in the likes of Reza Refaideen, Buddhima Priyaratne, Danush Daya, Nigel Ratwatte, Tharindra Ratwatte, Adeesha Weerathunga, Iroshan Silva, Srinath Sooriyabandara and Methun Hapugoda. There is also Ovin Hettiarachchi who is a 19-year-old player. There are several other promising youth players in the squad. According to Ibrahim the majority of players in the squad age around 25. Scrum half Sooriyabandara is tipped to lead the side.

Nilfer said that his focus on the initial days with the squad will be to focus on areas like the restarts, defence and rucks. “I was happy when I attended the first trial because I observed that the players are skilled and knowledgeable. I think we are living in an era of information and that has not only helped the game a lot but will also make my job a lot easier,” said the coach.

Sri Lanka’s appearances in the last few editions of the Commonwealth Games have produced fighting performances in pool matches, but there has been a drought in terms of producing a single victory at rugby sevens in the pool stages of the tournament. The appearance where they were able to bring back a piece of silverware from the games was at the 2014 Games in Gold Cost where they managed to win the newly introduced segment- ‘Shield Competition’- by beating Barbados Trinidad and Tobago 43-7. Earlier in the day the islanders had beaten Papua New Guinea to book their berth in the final. But this was after losing all their matches in the pool stages of the tournament.

This time around the rugby matches will be played from July 29-31. There will be women’s segment in the rugby sevens event and Sri Lanka is expected to field a team.

The men’s national squad comprises 20 players and finally, only 12 will take flight to England.

Ibrahim is quite optimistic that the players will gel together and do justice to their skills. The Sri Lanka coach underscored that one positive feature in the side is that none of the players is carrying injuries.

According to rugby sources, Rohan Chintaka is tipped to be the manager of the team.