Tag Rugby Carnival this weekend

Islamic Finance Unite Head M. Yaseer (third from left) hands over the sponsorship check to the SR and FA Founder/Director M. Nazeem Ghaffoor. Others from left Amana Holdings Group Director Love Yadav and Arpico Finance Caption Shakeer Sally - Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe

This Saturday (14) the Tag Rugby Carnival, organised by Synergy Rugby & Football Academy (SR&FA), promises fun for the whole family at Havelock Park in Colombo. The tournament, which is being held to celebrate the third anniversary of SR&FA, will feature 36 teams spanning four categories.

For the uninitiated Tag Rugby is a non-contact variant of the popular sport where by each player wears a belt with ‘tags’ attached to them. Played usually between teams of seven, attacking players must attempt to dodge, evade and pass a rugby ball while defenders attempt to prevent them scoring by “tagging” – pulling a velcro attached tag from the ball carrier, rather than a full contact tackle.

The tournament, which will begin at 8am on 14 January, will feature six schools and three academies competing in the Under 10 and Under 16 categories. An open segment meanwhile will feature nine teams from the investment banking (IBU) sector – Amana Holdings, Amana Takaful, Amana Bank, CDB (Central Development Bank), HNB Assurance, HNB IBU, Arpico Al-Jabal Finance, ADL Capital, and SL-SB (Sri Lanka Savings Bank) – while the Over 35 veterans category will feature six old boys teams (GSH Warriors, Old Zahirians, Old Wesleyites, Old Thurstanites, HARFA, and Kandy RA).

Speaking at the launch of the tournament Founder Director of SR&FA Nazeem Ghaffoor said: “SR&FA was founded in 2013 with the sole objective of developing Junior Rugby in Sri Lanka. We strove hard to introduce the game at junior level mainly to those schools in which rugby was a total stranger. Today, we are glad that our efforts have paid off. We were able to open to talented young boys in have taken up this beautiful game of rugby.”

SR&FA, which was formed in 2013 with 20 youngsters, has now grown to be a haven for 80 kids, mainly from schools – such as international schools – where rugby isn’t as popular.

“One of our biggest achievements was that SR&FA had been able to reach kids in schools where rugby is not part of their extracurricular activities. Our exercise in introducing rugby to players from these schools through our academy has turned out to be a great success. One of our major achievements was to get the players from International schools into rugby, as they seldom show interest in the sport when compared to football and basketball,” explained Ghafoor, an analyst and coach who with his fellow coaching staff has produced several national players in the past.

“Another of our efforts is to draw attention the attention of the mercantile sector to these players, so that they can be supported in the future. In the future we hope to grow as an academy and in the process help children in our academy grow as well through tournaments like these,” he added taking a moment to praise the work of tournament director Irfan Lye who he says “has been the backbone of the team who worked tirelessly to make this tournament a reality”.

The inaugural Synergy Tag Rugby Carnival will sponsored by Arpico (Al-Jabal) Finance Ltd, who have donated Rs. 235,000 to SR&FA for the event. Chief Executive Officer of Arpico (Al-Jabal) Chandrin Fernando, will grace the awards ceremony as the Chief Guest. Meanwhile former rugby great Ibrahim ‘Tanker’ Hamid, as well as top contributors Tony Amit and Hisham Abdeen will be special invitees to the event.