Lankans
at C’wealth Games
By Shamseer Jaleel
Sri Lanka’s sevens stars will be in action after a break of
six months when they lock horns with some leading nations in the
2005 Commonwealth games Rugby Tournament which will be played on
16-17 March 2006 in Melbourne, Australia in front of a large Sri
Lankan crowd who are settled Down Under.
Tournament top seed will be the All Blacks under coach Gordon Tietjens
which won its sixth consecutive IRB Sevens series last season. New
Zealand also travel to Melbourne as the defending Commonwealth Games
having won the gold medal in Manchester in 2002. New Zealand heads
Pool A with Kenya, Wales and Namibia.
Rugby
World Cup Sevens 2005 champions and World Games champions Fiji,
who won the silver medal in Manchester in 2002, are second seeds.
Waisale Serevi's men pipped England to second spot in the 2004/05
IRB Sevens series and head a competitive Pool B, which will see
Fiji face Scotland, Canada and Zambia. Sri Lanka will face stiff
opposition from England who are seeded third, the Wallabies who
will be in action in front of their home crowd. Cook Islands will
be the other team in the group C line up.
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