A conference was held today at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute to brief the media regarding the upcoming Carlton Super 7s Rugby Tournament 2014.
The 7’s tournament which is to take place for the 6th consecutive year will kick off on the 28th and 29th of June at the St. Anne’s grounds, Kurunegala as the first edition of the local tournament with the 2nd leg set unfold on the 5th and 6th of July at the D.A. Rajapaksa Stadium Galle. The tournament will then hit a break for the Commonwealth games and will resume with the international tournament taking place on the 8th and 9th of August at the BOI grounds Koggala. The 2nd and final leg of the Carlton super 7s rugby tournament 2014 will take place on the 15th and 16th of August at the Race Course international rugby grounds Colombo.
The Chairman of Ceylon Sports Premier Pvt Ltd. Mr Nimal Perera said that this most looked forward to rugby tournament will provide ample opportunities for home bread players to compete and play with international players which will definitely go a long way in terms of the nation’s rugby. He also went on to say that “ Sri Lankan rugby is developing quite notably as we see areas like Thambuththeagama and Jaffna also taking a keen interest in the sport”. He gave credit for this to Hon Namal Rajapaksa who in his words “has worked tirelessly towards the countries sport”. He finally wished to thank Dialog for coming onboard as the platinum sponsor of this tournament.
Fariq Carder, Senior General Manager – mobile money and payments, Dialog Axiata thanked the organizers for inviting Dialog to join this year’s edition of the tournament, “ It is a great opportunity for organizations to market their product by sponsoring tournaments of this caliber” he said. He also added that Dialog is pleased to join hands and wished the organizers all he best.
The tournament will host 10 teams taking on each other. The franchisers are as follows;
- Southern Sharks
- Western warriors
- Central kings
- Uva vipers
- North central typhoons
- Nohern gladiators
- North western blacks
- Jaffna Challengers
- Sabaragamuwa Stallions
- Eastern Eagles
In terms of quality the tournament as usual delivers just what the spectators expects, quality intense rugby. This year too the tournament will consist of the top IRB 7s players in the likes of the All blacks 7s skipper DJ Forbes, and a number of Fijian stars like Stefano Cacao and Gillis Kaka.
This tournament will definitely go a long a long way in developing the sport in the country and will most significantly open the doors for Sri Lankan rugby to enter the main fray by conducting such tournaments.
