Scratch Sri Lanka side go down to Chinese Taipei

DUBAI // The club side masquerading as the Sri Lanka national team had their hopes of a Five Nations fairytale dashed as they were downed by Chinese Taipei at The Sevens tonight. The victors sealed their place in Saturday's Division One final in the process, but they were pushed all the way by a Sri Lankan side who had battled considerable odds to even field a team. All 15 of Sri Lanka's first-choice players pulled out of the trip the day before the were set to leave for Dubai due to a dispute over the captaincy. They withdrew in a show of solidarity with Dilanka Wijesekera, who was originally named as captain, only to be replaced by Pavithra Fernando after the Sri Lankan sports minister Gamini Lokuge intervened. The new recruits had just one training session together, yet battled gamely against a pallid Chinese Taipei side, who had beaten the full-strength Lankans 35-23 a year before. Sri Lanka even held the lead in the first half, when their burly prop Henry Terrence lumbered over, and had his shirt ripped from his back in the process of scoring. They were within touching distance, 26-24 behind with 10 minutes left, only for the score to blow out to 36-24 by the final whistle. [e-mail]