WPRFU to conduct Open 7s Rugby
WPRFU focuses on youngsters
At a juncture when Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) has suddenly become a non-functioning body, the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) has stepped up in making arrangements to revive the game with an Open Club 7s Tournament within the region. The tournament date has been currently fixed as May 16 and the venue will be the CR&FC ground at Longdon Place.
“The reason behind organising such a tournament is to give the players, notably the school leavers, an opportunity to showpiece their talents. WPRFU is an affiliation of SLR with most number of member clubs, and it’s only fair that we step up to keep the game going under the present situation,” elaborated Nizam Jamaldeen, the Vice President and Tournament Committee Chairman of WPRFU.
“The good news is, we have also invited eight schools teams from the Western proivince to participate in this tournament,” he added.
The intended Open Club 7s is expected to have at least one team from each member clubs or more to bolster the participation and more importantly give the fresh legs to the big league the stepping stone to the next level from schools. Currently the WPRFU officials, headed by Roshan Deen, are in negotiations with potential sponsors who may come forward to become financial partners.
“We have sent invitations to all our member clubs, and entries will be accepted until May 8. We, as a leading affiliation of SLR should contribute to the game the best possible way we can, and this is just one step of it,” Jamaldeen added.
Through the upcoming competition , the organisers expect to provide the players of their membership clubs the opportunity with competitions that could ready themselves for this year’s league, knockout and 7s competitions beginning from November, well in advance. In addition the WPRFU had a committee meeting earlier this week and it was decided to organise an Under-21 and Under-24 and more 7s tournaments within this year.