Dialog Super Sevens rugby series auction:

Top Lankan player fetches Rs. 750,000

by Indika Welagedara

Some of the top Sri Lankan ruggerites were brought for as much as Rs. 750,000 at the local player auction held in Colombo yesterday for the upcoming Dialog Super Sevens Rugby tournament. Out of 181 players who are representing the local rugby clubs, 72 were brought by the eight franchises and the highest offer for a player was Sri Lankan rupees 750,000/- .

Some of the famous Sri Lanka national players who had the luxury of obtaining that amount are forward Jason Dissanayake who was brought by Softlogic Warriors, centre Kanchana Ramanayake by Etisalat Panthers, centre Danushka Ranjan by Walkers CML Vipers and utility three quarters Srinath Sooriyabandara by EZY Wolves and Richard Dharmapala by Cargills Gladiators.

Among some of the top schoolboy ruggerites who have been picked to represent teams in the Super Seven are Singer league and Milo knockout winning champion Isipathana College captain Kushan Indunil by Etisalat Panthers, and Isipathana and S. Thomas’ College highest points scorers for the season winger Ranindu Padmasanka and centre Ashwantha Herath by Just in Group Dragons and Softlogic Warriors respectively.

The auction for around 30-40 foreign players for the seven franchises will take place sometime next week. Around 12O Sri Lankan rugby players will get an opportunity to play and train with world class Sevens players. SLRFU will be conducting the two tournaments on August 5 and 6 and on August 12 and 13. Both tournaments will be played at the Racecourse International Rugby Stadium, Colombo 7. Dialog Axiata Plc. will be the tournament sponsor.The tournament format will consist of two pools “A“ and “B“ and each pool will have 4 teams. The teams in each pool will play each other on a round robin basis. Based on day 1 results, the teams will qualify to compete in the title championship on day 2 for the Cup Championship, Plate, Bowl and Shield. After each tournament, based on the team rankings, tournament points will be awarded to each team as follows:

1st Place - 30 Points,

2nd Place - 25 Points,

3rd Place - 21 Points,

4th Place - 17 Points,

5th Place - 13 Points,

6th Place - 9 Points,

7th Place - 5 Points,

8th Place - 1 Point.

Based on the 1st Leg placings the teams will be pooled as follows for the 2nd Leg:

The 2nd Leg will also follow the same tournament format as the 1st Leg. The team which has the highest number of points from both tournament legs will be declared the winner of the Dialog Sri Lanka Super 7’s.

The Super Seven teams are (foreign players to be added):