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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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2006 Asian Games Rugby qualifiers from Singer Sevens by Lal Gunasekara The 7th Singer-SriLankan Airlines International Rugby 7s of the Kandy Sports Club scheduled to be staged at Nittawela on September 9,10 and 11 will be the decider to select eight teams to compete at the Asian Games in Qatar next year (2006). The International 7s is an International Rugby Board (IRB) Satellite event now restricted only to 12 countries in the Asian region due to the Boxing Day tsunami, and is being sponsored once again by Singer (Sri Lanka) Limited and SriLankan Airlines with Connaissance de Ceylan as co-sponsors. The Chairman of the organising Committee, Iswan Omar, told the Sunday Obsever that four countries have yet to confirm their participation in Kandy. They are Kazakhastan, Thailand, South Korea and Chinese taipei. The countries who have already confirmed are Arabian Gulf, China, Hong Kong, Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. He further said that as the Singer-SriLankan International 7s is a prerequisite to being able to play in the 2006 Asian Games, the four countries not yet confirmed their participation, are certain of doing so very soon. Omar also said that six international panel referees with a referee manager and two assessors have also confirmed and the organisers will seek the assistance of the SLRFU Referees Society to bridge the balance referees and touch judges. Omar said that six European countries too showed interest to compete in Kandy. They were Portugal, Georgia, Germany, France, Denmark and Belgium. However, as the tournament has been restricted to the Asian region only, the organisers hope to invite them for next year's (2006) tournament, which will see events for Asia, Europe and Africa too. He also said that India, Philippines and Pakistan have been named as stand-byes for this year's tournament. Last year (2004), Sri Lanka beat Kazakhastan 26-10 and lost to Thailand 10-26, while in the Cup quarter-final, Sri Lanka lost to Japan 5-49, but went on to win the Plate final beating Arabian Gulf 31-19. Omar further disclosed that though 12 school teams too are expected to compete in the Schools 7s also to be worked off concurrently, only Isipathana, Wesley, St. Peter's, St. Anthony's, St. Sylvester's, Vidyartha, Zahira, Science, Ananda, Dharmaraja and Kingswood have confirmed. He said: Both Royal and Trinity are scheduled to figure in their 'second-led' fixture of the Bradby Shield in Kandy on September 10, which clashes with our 7s. This is the reason that they have not confirmed, but we are making every attempt to get the two schools to arrange their 'second-leg' game for a later date. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, are down to play their second-round fixtures of the IRB World Cup (Asia qualifying) against Thailand at Bangkok on June 4 and against Singapore at Longden Place on June 25. In the first-round games played last year (2004), Sri Lanka beat India (54-17) at Bombay and Thailand (35-14) at Longden Place. |
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