Sri Lanka Super sevens in August 2016

Dialog Axiata has come forward to sponsor the Sri Lanka Super 7s Rugby tournament. Here Dialog Enterprise  Group Chief Officer Jeromy Huxtable hands over the sponsorship cheque to SLRFU President Asanga Seneviratne. Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara and Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando look on - Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya

By Shamseer Jaleel

The inaugural Dialog Axiata Sri Lanka Super Rugby Sevens tournament 2016 will take place on 5 and 6 August and the second leg on 12 and 13 August at the Race Course rugby grounds. This inaugural event will be sponsored by Dialog Axiata Sri Lanka.

Eight club teams will be in action where local players have been offered the opportunity to play with the world’s best ruggerites. Top class International ruggerites from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and England will arrive in the country for this mega-event. Each team will be entitled to field three foreign players. There will be also eight school teams lock horns in this tournament in the schools section along with the Club tournament.

The eight club teams are: Cargils Ceylon Gladiators, Access Group Kings, Walkers CML Vipers, Mobitel Ltd. Eagles, Just In Time Group Dragons, Soft Logic Holdings PLC Warriors, EZY Corporation Wolfs, and Etisalat Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Phantoms. School teams are from Isipathana, St. Peter’s, S. Thomas’, St. Joseph’s, St. Anthony’s, Wesley, D.S. Senanayake and Zahira.

President of the governing body Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) told Daily FT: “This will encourage youngsters to take up rugby and thanked the two Ministers, Dayasiri Jayasekera and Harin Fernando, for the support towards this event.”

Asanga added: “This will be a good opportunity for the Sri Lankan sevens selection process which will give the selectors ample local talent plus one month for the preparation for the Hong Kong and South Korean leg at the Asian Sevens.”

Initially the Sevens rugby was started in 1999 by Kandy Sports Club when they hosted the 16 International team event initially at the Bogambara Stadium and later on moved to Nittawela. Then Carlton International sevens was worked off for few years which saw some rugby legends taking part over the last couple of years.