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| Sunday, 12 October 2003 |
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New format to prevent losing purposefully at Mercantile Rugby Sevens A new format is being introduced this year to minimise teams purposely playing to lose at the 33rd Mercantile Rugby 7's of the Mercantile Rugby Football Association to be worked off on October 18 and 19 at Longden Place and Royal College Sports Complex. Games on Sunday will only be at Longden Place. This is being sponsored for the first time by Dialog GSM. The Secretary of the MRFA, Romesh de Livera, outlining the new format said that the tournament will be conducted in eight groups with eight teams being seeded. Winners of each group will qualify for the Cup category, while the losers in the Cup "quarters" move into the Plate category. The second and third placed in each group play for the Bowl, while the losing semi-finalists in the Bowl category play for the Shield. He said: "This will encourage new teams and help weaker outfits and we will improve on it next year." De Livera also said that 30 entries have been received so far and that the organisers are expecting 10 more sides to enter before the draw which takes place tomorrow (Monday) at the CR & FC at 6 p.m. So far, there are four new teams in Sommervilles, Asian Alliance, TA Logistics and Brandix. A Ladies Tournament too will be worked off concurrently and five to six teams are expected to participate, including Slimline, Tri-Star, John Keells, SriLankan Airlines and Ceylinco Group. The President of the MRFA, Nishantha Wickremage, addressing the media briefing said that success depends on a winning team, and that the MRFA have now found the correct partner in Dialog GSM and thanked the telecommunication giant of coming forward to sponsor this tournament. The MRFA are making every effort to make the Mercantile 7's an event for the entire family with food and beverage stalls, kiddies corner, hourly raffle draws etc. to help it make an exciting evening. The General Manager Sales and Marketing of Dialog GSM, Nushad Perera, said that they were happy to be associated with the Mercantile Rubgy 7's where all teams competing are corporate customers of Dialog GSM, who will be involved in rugby for a longer term. He hoped that next year's tournament will see about 50 teams vying for honours. Among the others present were Nalin Gunatilleke (Treasurer of the MRFA), Roshan Tissera (Vice-President of MRFA) and Chirantha de Zoysa (Specialist - Marketing Communication of Dialog GSM) (L.G.) |
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