As much as five Sri Lankan players have been ruled out of participating at the upcoming Under-20 Youth Asian Rugby Championships in Hong Kong for not meeting the stipulated rule regarding the age of players.

Ajith Abeyratne, Chief Rugby Selector, told ‘The Island’ that the five players could not be accommodated on the tour party because they were under-aged, according to the rules specified for international rugby by the International Rugby Board (IRB).

As Abeyratne revealed, the players who were unfortunate to be left out of the tour are: S. Devinda, Maduranga (Both from Isipathana College), M. Ramzee (Trinity), Rajaguru (Kingswood) and A. Lahir (St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota).

Abeyratne said that the players’ details regarding age, stated in their birth certificates, didn’t meet the requirement which specifies hat a player has to be born between January 1st 1990 and December 31st 1991 to be eligible to play in the tournament.

Abeyratne also said that the following players had been picked to fill the vacant slots left in the squad by these five players and a few others who had made themselves unavailable for national duty.

The replacements are: R. Koddithuwakku, A. Willawara, A. Manoharan (All S. Thomas,’ Mt. Lavinia), S. Ahamed and S. Mohamed (Both Royal College), S. Armstrong (Trinity), Edirisinghe (Prince of Wales) and Ralston (Mahanama).

The final trial to prune down the squad further has been scheduled for August 3 (Monday) at 4.30 pm.

The squad is being handled by former Sri Lanka player and present Navy SC utility player, Nilufer Ibrahim, in the absence of a head coach.