Sri Lanka’s campaign in the Asia Rugby Championship came to a disappointing end after a hard-fought 21-29 defeat to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their final Qualifier match played at the Racecourse Grounds in Colombo.
As a result, Sri Lanka made their exit from the tournament having already gone down to South Korea and Hong Kong in their previous two fixtures.
Sri Lanka were trailing by a solitary point (21-22) shortly after the break but the UAE held on determinedly to score a decisive try during the latter stages and seal the contest in their favour.
Sri Lanka had their chances in the match against South Korea as well but they were eventually beaten 34-38 after leading 17-14 in their match played at the same venue.
Sri Lanka built up a commanding 29-14 lead at one stage before the visitors stormed back magnificently with back-to-back tries to snatch a dramatic victory from the jaws of defeat.
Earlier, Sri Lanka suffered a heavy 7-78 defeat at the hands of Hong Kong in a one-sided contest played at the Kai Tak Youth Sports Grounds in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong put up a dominant performance as they ran down as many as 12 tries and converted nine of them with Sri Lanka responding with a solitary goal.
