Access began their title defence successfully while MAS and Dialog remain unblemished at the end of day one of the 47th Mercantile rugby 7’s tournament.
Race Course played host to the tournament for the first time as corporate teams entered the fray in search of silverware.
Beginning at 1pm, the first game of the 47th Mercantile 7’s was a cliffhanger as group C’s NTB took on new comers Classic Travels.
The game was intense and tight but it was NTB who managed to scrape their way towards the victory winning 3-0.
The first day consisted of more than 30 games as a majority of the Bowl and Shield segment games were worked off while three cup segment games were played as well.
Mobitel, playing in the Cup segment pulled out of the tournament in the final stages of registration hence John Keells was handed a walkover in their first game.
Access were made to work hard for their 19-00 win over newcomers to the cup segment Kanrich Finance.
Sandun Herath was the man who made the difference for MAS as he propelled his team towards a hard fought 10-00 win over another new team to the cup segment, AMW ‘A’.
Dialog had a shaky start against CDB ‘A’ but experience came into count as players of the likes of Anuradha Herath and Dinusha Fernando helped them towards a commanding 35-05 win to end the first day’s proceedings at Race Course.
Results:
| Team 1 | Sores | Team 2 | |
| NTB | 3 | 0 | Classic Travels |
| Mercantile Investment | 7 | 12 | Janashakthi |
| Clove Tel | 52 | 0 | Nor Lanka |
| HSBC | 5 | 12 | Hela Clothing |
| Commercial Bank | 0 | 38 | Sri Lanka Insurance |
| AMW ‘B’ | 14 | 10 | HDPL |
| CTC | 10 | 5 | Amana Bank |
| Prosporous Capital | 33 | 0 | CDB ‘B’ |
| Kandurata | 29 | 0 | Commercial Credit |
| Fair First | 5 | 10 | Sampath Bank |
| Brandix | 33 | 0 | Attune |
| Ceylon Knit Trend | 7 | 5 | NDB |
| NTB | 14 | 0 | Virtusa |
| Classic Travels | 57 | 0 | Nor Lanka |
| Mercantile Investment | 0 | 33 | Clove Tel |
| HSBC | 19 | 7 | Commercial Bank |
| Hela Clothing | 19 | 5 | AMW ‘B’ |
| Sri Lanka Insurance | 24 | 5 | HDPL |
| CTC | 0 | 31 | Prosporous Capital |
| Amana Bank | 0 | 31 | Kandurata |
| CDB ‘B’ | 28 | 10 | Commercial Credit |
| NTB | 7 | 19 | Janashakthi |
| Classic Travels | 24 | 0 | Virtusa |
| Mercantile Investment | 31 | 7 | Nor Lanka |
| Fair First | 0 | 26 | Brandix |
| Sampath Bank | 21 | 12 | Ceylon Knit Trend |
| Attune | 0 | 17 | NDB |
| Access | 19 | 0 | Kanrich |
| MAS | 10 | 0 | AMW ‘A’ |
| Dialog | 35 | 5 | CDB ‘A’ |
| JKH | Walkover | Mobitel | |
| Clove Tel | 38 | 0 | Virtusa |
