SLRFU will go flat out to make presence felt

by Hafiz Marikar

Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union will go all out to make the Five Nation Division I - championship a memorable one. The tourney is scheduled to kick-off on March 31 and will come to an end on April 6 at Havelock Park. The competition will be conducted on a league basis. The teams are expected to meet each other once, with the country with the best record earning promotion and a ranking in the top five.

The line-up: 31st March - Kazakhstan vs Thailand and the second game will be between Sri Lanka vs Chinese Taipei - 3rd April: Kazakhstan vs Chinese Taipei - and the next Sri Lanka vs Thailand. 6th April: Thailand vs Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka vs Kazakhstan. Earlier, it was known as the Asiad with a few countries taking part but today the format has been changed to accommodate with the additional teams in the region.

Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) selectors who picked 58 players in preparation for the Asian Five Nations Division I Rugby Tournament, have pruned the teams down to 33.

The squad:

Props: Henry Terence, Dushmantha Priyadarshana, Kishore Jehan, Sathya Ranathunaga, Heshan Kalhara.

Hookers: Namal Rajapaksa, Uchitha Jayasooriya, Anuradha Walpola.

Locks: Dinesh Sanjeewa, Hasitha Perera, Sajith Saranga, Jason Dissanayake, Ishan Noor.

Third rows: Yoshitha Rajapaksa (Capt), Suhiru Anthony, Sumedha Mallawena, Sharo Fernando.

Scrum halves: Roshan Weeraratne, Suranga Pushpakumara,.

Fly halves: Fazil Marija (V. Capt), Niroshan Fernando, Rehan Weerakoon.

Centres: Pradeep Liyanage, Dinusha Chathuranga, Lasintha de Costa, Gayan Weerarthne.

Wingers: Chula Susantha, Chamara Dabare, Sandun Herath, Saliya Hapangoda, Nuwan Hettiarachchi.

Fullbacks: Mohamed Sheriff, Riza Mubarak.

The Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) was founded in 1968. It comprised the following Nations - Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The purpose was to provide International competition between its members by staging a biannual tournament. The Asian Rugby Football Tournament (ARFT) was established in 1969 thereby, becoming the second oldest established international rugby tournament in the world. It currently continues as the A5N. The growth of rugby in Asia is reflected in the increase of ARFU members, tournaments, events and activities.

Going back to the history of rugby in Asia which dates back to nearly as long as that in England, where the World's first Rugby Union, the RFU was established in 1871. Eight years later in 1879, the first Asian Rugby Union was founded in Ceylon now known as Sri Lanka, Rugby Football Union. Rugby was also being played in both Hong Kong and Japan before the turn of the century.

The launch of the HSBC Asian Five Nations marks the latest chapter in the long and distinguished history of rugby in Asia the fastest growing region in world rugby.In the last ten years the membership of the Asian Rugby Football Union has nearly tripled from 10 members in 1998 to 28 Rugby Unions today. Of the 28 member unions in the Asian Rugby Football Union, 15 are full members of the International Rugby Board: Arabian Gulf, China, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

There are a further 6 associate members of the IRB in Asia including Cambodia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Lebanon and the UAE Rugby Association are the two newest ARFU associate members as of December 2009.The game maintained its appeal amongst Asian audiences through the tumultuous post-colonial era and on 15 December 1968, the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) was founded with eight original members: Ceylon, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The first Asian Rugby Football Tournament (ARFT) was held in April 1969 in Tokyo. It has been played initially on an annual basis and then later on a bi-annual basis ever since. The HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5 competition now takes the place of the ARFT. The present ARFT trophy is now contested in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division I competition. Asia has been represented at every Rugby World Cup since 1987 with Japan being the only Asian team to have qualified and played in every Rugby World Cup. In 2009, Japan became the first Asian nation to be awarded the right to host the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

Bradly Shield - June 1 and 15

Coming on to the popular inter-school rugby season, the annual Bradly Shield encounters between Trinity and Royal will be played on the 1st and 15th of June. The first-leg will be at Pallekelle Stadium and the 2nd leg at Royal College Complex.