For the first time in the history of rugby almost every player in the country will be taking part in the Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens tournament that will come to a conclusion at the Race Course Stadium in Colombo today.
The players represent clubs, the armed forces, Police and various Provincial teams. There is also a women’s tournament played concurrently. There are four women’s club teams and six provincial teams. In all 26 teams are participating this year which is the highest number.
“Although rugby is being played in Sri Lanka for the past 143 years, this is the first time that players from all provinces of the country want to play. Players will join their clubs or can represent their provinces and our aim is to get new blood into the system. Earlier, this tournament was called the Club Sevens but now the enthusiasm has grown and all want to play,” said Group Captain Nalin de Silva the organizer of the tournament.
“Originally our aim was to get sixteen teams to participate but this time there will be 26 teams, the highest number of teams that will cater to all players interested in the game,” said De Silva.
He also said that the rules and all other aspects laid out by the World Rugby are applied during the tournament for the first time.
Another record that the game of rugby has achieved is that there are as many as six sponsors for this single tournament which has never happened before.
These details were revealed by Rizly Illyas the president of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) at a media briefing held at the Ramada Hotel in Colombo on Wednesday (5).
The sponsors are Nipon Paint who is the title sponsor, Hettigoda Industries the makers of Siddhalepa, John Keells Holdings, Turkish Airlines, Prima Kottu Mee and WebXpay.
The Pakistan embassy is also part of the sponsoring team.
The men’s category consists of eight club teams, Police, Army, Navy, CR&FC, Air Force, Havelocks, Western Barbarians and Navy Blues.
Segment 2 will consist of teams from the Provinces, Southern, Uva, NCP Srilions, Sabaragamuwa, NWP (Wayamba), Up Country Planters, Eastern Blue Whales and Western Province.
The women’s club teams are CR&FC, Army, Navy and Air Force.
Women’s Provinces are UVA, Southern, UWP (Wayamba), Sabaragamuwa, CR&FC Blues (WP) and Central Province.
Turkish Airlines will give away two airline tickets for the best player men and women.
Vidyani Hettigoda a Director of Hettigoda Industries said that they are proud to start supporting with rugby.