Twelve schools battle it out for Singer-SriLankan rugby sevens title

Kandy sports correspondent

RUGBY: Twelve schools will participate in the Singer-SriLankan Schools Rugby Sevens organised by the Kandy Sports Club and sponsored by Singer Sri Lanka (Pvt) Limited and the SriLankan Airlines and with Amaya Resorts Hotel and Spas as the associated sponsors which will be worked off at the Nittawela rugby stadium in Kandy from September 15 to 17.

The schools which have confirmed participation are St. Anthony's College, St. Peter's College, Kingswood College, Science College, Dharmaraja College, St. Sylvester's College, Isipatana College, Wesley College, Vidyartha College, Ananda College, Zahira College and St. Joseph's College.

The preliminary round of the schools matches will commence at 1 p.m. on Friday, September 16 and will be played on a round robin basis. On Saturday September 16 the knock-out stages of this tournament will be played alongside the international pool matches. On Sunday September 17, the schools finals - Cup, Plate and the Bowl will be worked off.

According to the Chairman of the Singer SriLankan International Rugby Sevens, the draw for this tournament is as follows:

Pool A: St. Anthony's College, Science College, Ananda College.

Pool B: Isipatana College, Wesley College, St. Joseph's College.

Pool C: Kingswood College, Dharmaraja College, Zahira College.

Pool D: St. Peter's College, St. Sylvesters College, Vidyartha College.

The first two teams in the rankings are seeded in Pool A and D. The third and fourth teams seeded are drawn in Pool B and C.

Notable absentees from the above draw are two leading schools Trinity and Royal College who will be preparing for the Bradby Shield tie during this time.

The toughest group will be Pool B in which Isipatana MV, Wesley College and St. Joseph's College will be in the fray. In Pool C the Kingswoodians will meet their traditional rivals Dharmaraja College but will not find any difficulty in pushing themselves to the Cup semi-finals, with the third team being Zahira College.

Iswan Omar also said that the tournament will be telecast live on the final day. There will also be a women's exhibition rugby game played at 12 noon thereafter the knock-out for the Cup, Plate and Bowl for both international and schools matches will take place on Sunday.