By Callistus Davy
For the third time Sri Lanka played competitive rugby and fell short of winning, this time at the hands of the United Arab Emirates to lose 21-29 in the team’s last Asian Zone Rugby World Cup qualifying round match at the Race Course ground in Colombo on Friday.
Sri Lanka squandered its opportunity to stay competitive in the match, as skipper and goal kicker Tharinda Ratwatte had a noticeably off day by his usual standards. Despite slotting in three penalties and a conversion to keep his side within reach at halftime, trailing the UAE 16-22, Ratwatte appeared cocky in the crucial second half an attitude that proved costly as the game slipped away.
Ratwatte may have committed his most critical error with his team trailing 21-22, choosing to go for a scrum against a significantly heavier UAE pack rather than taking a shot at goal after being awarded a penalty 15 minutes into the second half.
Just a minute later, he opted against a straightforward kick at goal from penalty range and instead overcooked a tactical kick, sending the ball out of play in an ambitious attempt to set up a line-out five meters from the try line.
Even with eight minutes to go and the UAE team unable to seal the result Ratwatte on yet another occasion over-kicked the ball in the run of play and with it, Sri Lanka’s chances of a possible and arguably favourable result went astray.
It all happened at a time the UAE conceded as many as eight penalties during the early and middle stages of the second half while Sri Lanka played minus a yellow carded robust forward Vimukthi Gamage with 15 minutes of play left.
The miscalculations on the part of Ratwatte apparently broke the momentum of the team as Sri Lanka in the last quarter of play conceded five penalties much to the relief of UAE who scored just one try in the second half and that too ten minutes before the final whistle.
But Ratwatte was the first to admit after the match he could have done better in the second half as UAE came under heavy pressure to cross the Sri Lanka line.
“A few tactical errors on my part. I could have done it differently. We took a gamble in the situation and it did not pay off for us,” said Ratwatte.
