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| Sunday, 28 July 2002 |
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Isipatana put schools' rugby on International map-Jamie Scott by Pelham Juriansz Isipatana College, Colombo who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, have put Sri Lankan schools rugby on the map by organising the first ever Asian school sponsored rugby Tournament for Schools (including International schools) to be held on September 7 and 8 at the CR & FC grounds. According to Jamie Scott the International Rugby Board (IRB) representative Isipathana is the first school, according to his knowledge, to have organised such a Tournament. Speaking at the Press conference at the GOH (Grand Oriental Hotel) to highlight the progress made so far the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Dilroy Fernando said that in one and a half months time it will be a grand occasion for the Isipatana College Old Boys and present boys headed by their energetic Principal Upali Gunasekera when they host as many as eight foreign schoolboy teams plus twelve local teams at the CR & FC grounds for the first ever International schools Rugby 7's Tournament 2002. Isipatana rugby which has been "Simply the Best" over the years (they were the first school to be Triple Champions in rugby),has produced some outstanding players some of whom have been Hisham Abdeen (who has the joint record for the most number of tries in a school season) and Dilroy Fernando, the present Chairman of the organising Committee, to name a few. Speaking live by Telephone from a ferry in Kowloon, Hong Kong was Jamie Scott, the Hon. Sec General of the Asian Rugby Football Union, and International Rugby Board (IRB) Council representative for Asia. In conversation with famous past Ruggerite Chandrishan Perera, who hosted the show, Jamie Scott said that the school players of today will represent the country tomorrow, and he feels that Isipatana have created rugby history by being the first school to sponsor a team in the Asian circuit. The Organising Committee appointed M/S Sharky the professional event Company headed by Chandrishan Perera to handle the management of the Tournament. The eight schools that have been invited for the Competition which will be shown live on ESPN and Star Sports and either Rupavahini or MTV will be two from Australia, namely New South Wales County School and Lloyd Mcdermott School (which is more a rugby University). The others are Nidhi School (India), English College (Dubai), Vva Podmoskovie (Russia), Qatar (Doha Rugby Football Club) and Brighton Rugby Club (England). Confirmation is being awaited from teams from New Zealand, Thailand, Portugal, Singapore or Malaysia, with only one team being selected from amongst them. The following technical delegates will act as Referees: John Wale (England), Jonathan Caplan (South Africa), Pornchai (Thailand), Brat Saxon (New Zealand) and the only International Lady Referee, Rachel Sara Allan. In addition three local Referees will blow the whistle, namely Nizam Jamaldeen, Aruna Jayasinghe and Anil Jayasinghe. Sponsors for the Tournament will be Sri Lankan Airlines (official carrier), N Car Travels & Tours (Travel Agent), N Car Sports (Apparel), Sportrade (Sports Drink), Raffles (Caterers) and Grand Oriental Hotel(Official Hotel). In addition Freightlinks, Caltex, Dialog GSM, Multivision, Union Assurance, Harischandra Mills, Casilan and the Isipathana Old Boys from Bangladesh have stepped forward to lend a helping hand. The Chief Guest is yet to be announced and the local schools participating are of course hosts Isipatana, Thurstan, Royal, Wesley, St. Anthony's Kandy, St. Peter's, S. Thomas', Trinity College, Kingswood, Dharmaraja, a Combined Southern schools team and Vidyartha. Out of the twelve schools eight will be selected. |
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