Wesley have won their fifth consecutive Lions Sri Lanka Schools Touch Sevens title played on Friday at Doha Rugby Football Centre.
Wesley dominated St. Sylvester’s 3-1 in the final, helped by two tries from Lahiru Prasad. Teammate Sajith Ariyawansha scored their team’s second try while Sashi Kanth crossed over for St. Sylvester’s only touchdown.
Wesley have now won the prestigious Lions Touch tournament five times running, a feat once thought of as impossible.
Captain Shivan Pathirage said the team were only focused on winning.
“With half our players out to other commitments our training was mainly focused on winning our group division” Pathirage said.
“After that we were aiming at taking it match by match. The fact that we could win five titles was not part of our strategy. We played as if were our first title as we had a lot of pressure coming into the tournament”.
“I am very thankful for the boys who gave a solid performance all day. Everybody did their job”.
Pathirage said playing in the most prestigious touch event in Qatar and for the first time at the Doha Rugby Club was something special. “Full credit to Qatar Touch who with the Lions Committee was able to deliver a Touch festival atmosphere we haven’t experienced before”.
St. Sylvester’s try scoring machine Kanth said, “The Lions Touch is a big prize for us and we wait all year for the event in hope to win the cup. It painstaking to make the final and lose to silly mistakes”
“We applied the basics much better than Wesley but we just couldn’t match their speed. However, the chance to play the final at DRFC with a huge crowd was something to remember. We are still absorbing the atmosphere” Kanth said.
Following the ceremonial presentation Lions RFC and committee president Nimo Amit said, “We thank God for a blessed day. Everything went according to plan and it was a great day for the sport of Touch”.
“The competition was fierce with the standard of Touch elevated to heights we haven’t seen before”.
Amit was full of praise for the event partners saying “I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our partners and sponsors in particular Qatar Touch, Sports Corner, Oil Exec, Vodafone, Sri Lakan Airlines, DRFC, Sampath Bank, and Well-On restaurant”.
For his part Qatar Touch official Samuel Rico told the media, “Qatar touch has been producing and presenting Touch events since 2010. However, today Touch reached a new dimension”.
The final days results:
Cup: Wesley 3 – St. Sylvester’s 1
Plate: Isispathana 1 – Trinity 0
Bowls: St. Peters 2 – Royal 1
Sheild: Dharmaraja 1 (extra time) – Mahanama 0
Invitational: Sherbourne 3 – Warriors 0