{"id":13085,"date":"2026-09-08T19:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/?p=13085"},"modified":"2026-09-08T19:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:43:38","slug":"a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/","title":{"rendered":"A new era for Sri Lankan rugby!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the Asian Games just around the corner, the Sri Lankan men&#8217;s sevens rugby team has been handed over to one of our own former captains. It is none other than Fazil Marija, who has won the love of rugby fans.<br>This decision, confirmed by Sri Lanka Rugby Federation President Pavithra Fernando, is a very decisive and hopeful step for the upcoming Asian Games.<br>Not only his achievements as a player on the field, but the wealth of experience he has gained while coaching the Trinity College Kandy team and the powerful Kandy Sports Club will surely be a great strength for the national team this time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the Asian Games just around the corner, the Sri Lankan men&#8217;s sevens rugby team has been handed over to one of our own former captains. It is none other than Fazil Marija, who has won the love of rugby fans.This decision, confirmed by Sri Lanka Rugby Federation President Pavithra Fernando, is a very decisive&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,22],"tags":[1900,3492,651,73,134],"class_list":["post-13085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-rugby","category-rugby","tag-asian-games","tag-fazil-marija","tag-kandy-sports-club","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A new era for Sri Lankan rugby! - SL Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"si_LK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A new era for Sri Lankan rugby! - SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the Asian Games just around the corner, the Sri Lankan men&#8217;s sevens rugby team has been handed over to one of our own former captains. It is none other than Fazil Marija, who has won the love of rugby fans.This decision, confirmed by Sri Lanka Rugby Federation President Pavithra Fernando, is a very decisive...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lknewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-08T13:43:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-08T13:43:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fsl-2026-09-08.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Slsports Viraj\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#\/schema\/person\/6e3ead9806ed4f2b4ddfc9faa69328a5\"},\"headline\":\"A new era for Sri Lankan rugby!\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-08T13:43:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-08T13:43:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\"},\"wordCount\":115,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fsl-2026-09-08.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Asian Games\",\"Fazil Marija\",\"Kandy Sports Club\",\"slsports\",\"sports news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"National Rugby\",\"Rugby\"],\"inLanguage\":\"si\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/a-new-era-for-sri-lankan-rugby\/\",\"name\":\"A new era for Sri Lankan rugby! 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