United Arab Emirates trounced Sri Lanka by 29 points (5 tries, 2 conversions) to 10 (2 tries) to take the Plate at the Dialog Asian Rugby Sevens in Dubai yesterday.
The UAE also beat Sri Lanka in the Cup championship first round 29-7 and yet again ran away with the equal number of tries to seal a comprehensive victory.
The UAE had several overseas players and were fitter and physically bigger than their rivals and dominated in all departments from the start.
They crossed the Sri Lankan defence line thrice in the first half to take a 19-0 lead and in the second half had some anxious moments before they scored a fourth try.
Sri Lanka reduced the lead through a try by Janindu Dilshan who covered 70 metres to touch down. But the UAE scored their fifth and final try to seal the result although Sri Lanka scored a second try through Gayashan Dikkumbura which brought some consolation.
Sri Lanka managed to score only nine tries in their five outings while their opponents crossed their defense 25 times. With this loss the Sri Lankan team is relegated to the sixth position after being placed fourth at the last tournament.
Sri Lanka also lost to Japan and China in the first round and were without their best Sevens players with only Janindu Dilshan and Nishon Perera as the only experienced players.
Earlier Thailand’s women crushed their Sri Lankan counterparts by 45 points (seven tries, five conversions) to nil to clinch the Plate.
After leading 21-0 at the breather, the Thailand lasses completely outsmarted their rivals in all departments in the second half to plant four more tries to add to three in the first half.
The Sri Lankan women had another close 19-15 win over the Philippines with skipper Dulani Pallekondage scoring two tries while Anusha Attanayake barged over to score the third try. Sri Lanka’s only other win was against Malaysia in the first round as they won 12-10 and managed to retain the sixth slot in the rankings without any improvement.