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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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All fears cleared, International Rugby Sevens will go ahead By Lal Gunasekera Some countries like Japan, South Korea and Guam had anxieties of coming to Sri Lanka for the 7th Singer-SriLankan Airlines International Rugby 7's on September 9, 10 and 11 at Nittawela, but we managed to dispel those fears they raised about the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadiragamer and the emergency. The eleven overseas participants have now confirmed their arrival, SLRFU sources said. "The International 7's organised by the Kandy Sports Club is now an International Rugby Board (IRB) Satellite event and their (IRB) objective is to promote the event in Sri Lanka to provide an annual Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) 7's ranking for each year. This ranking will help ARFU members been invited to play in various IRB 7's tournaments annually", said the chairman of the Organizing Committee, Iswan Omar. He said that the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) has been officially confirmed as the host nation by the IRB, The format for next year (2006) remain at 12 teams with the 11th and 12th teams this year (2005) being relegated and the two vacancies filled either by Pakistan, Philippines, Kampuchea, Laos, Mongolia, Kyrgistan or Uzbekistan. The 12 teams and the groups this year are : Pool A - Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Pool B-Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Pool C - South Korea, Arabian Gulf, Kazakhstan, Pool D - Chinese Taipei, Sri Lanka and Guam. Sri Lanka plays Guam on September 10 at 3.40 p. m. and Chinese Taipei at 5.20 p.m. The pool games on September 10 starts 1.20 p. m. while the Bowl, plate and Cup events on September 11 will be from 9.50 a.m. Omar further confirmed the arrival of overseas match officials from Japan (Taize Hirabayashi and Takashi Hadara), Hong Kong (Blair Collier and Micheael Hamlyn). Arabian Gulf (Steve Scott and Grant Batemen). Singapore (Mathew Oakley), Malaysia (Manian Krishnan) and Thailand (Amorn Sukungpong). There will also be top IRB and ARFU officials too who will be arring for the International 7's. He thanked Singer (Sri Lanka) Limited and SriLankan AirLines profusely for their continued sponsorship and also Connaissance de Ceylan Limited, Lion Brewery, John Keells and Ceylon Cold Stores too for their assistance and co-operation. As always, 12 schools too will compete in the 7's among themselves concurrently with the International 7's. They too have been grouped into four pools. They are: Pool A - St. Anthony's, Ananda, Zahira, Pool B- - St. Peter's, Wesley, Dharmaraja, Pool C S.Thomas', Vidyartha, Science College, Pool D - Kingswood, Isipathana and St. Sylvester's. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SriLankan Airlines, Peter Hill, said that the 7's is getting better and bigger and that their commitment to nature rugby in Sri Lanka will continue. He said that it was also great to get recognition from the IRB and this was solely due to the hard work put in by Kandy SC and the organisers and the planning that went into it. He further said that this would prove to the outside that Sri Lanka is "back in business". Chairman of Singer (Sri Lanka) Limited, Hemaka Amarasuriya, too said that it was great to get the recognition of the IRB and the hard work put in by Kandy SC and Organising Committee. He said that rugby qualifies to be one of the most popular sports in Sri Lanka and with corporate sponsors (Singer, SriLankan Airlines, Caltex and Dialog) have put rugby on the right track, but they must sustain and build up the sport so that Sri Lanka will be Asian Champions one day. President of Kandy Sports Club, Dharmasiri Madugalle, and President of
the SLRFU, Priyanthe Ekanayake, too spoke on the occasion. |
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