Lankan rugby gets international flavour

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s rugby history an international sports conglomerate namely ‘Gilbert’ has recognised the countries potential and thus come forward to sponsor the National team’s attire.

President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) Nimal Lewke speaking to The Sunday Times said; “Former Thomian ruggerite Shrimal Wickremasinghe spoke to Gilbert. And following a discussion with us, they decided to sign a contract for two years to provide the attire for national players starting with the Hong Kong Sevens next month. Gilbert has also agreed to give us some equipment and rugby balls at a discounted rate. Thus we intend to give these balls to schools clubs. In addition Singer Sri Lanka will sponsor the Hong Kong Sevens team.”

Incidentally Gilbert rugby balls are used in practically all the countries that play the sport.

It also seems very likely that the ‘A’ Division Asian Championship may well be postponed for November. When asked, Lewke said; “China which is one of the countries taking part are finding it difficult to get their visas to the host nation Taiwan. We offered to host it. But another proposal was made to reschedule the tournament for November. We are in favour of this because we have more time to prepare. In addition our domestic season would have finished and we are looking at getting a game with either Arabian Gulf or Hong Kong before the tournament. As for the schools season, sponsors Singer have asked us to oversee the tournament and both the union and the referees have had a meeting with the schools body. What we have suggested is that other than for the big games, other matches be played on Wednesday or Thursday. Otherwise what happened last season will reoccur with games being postponed due to the lack of a venue.”

Meanwhile the SLRFU submitted a fresh list of ten names to the Sports Minister out of which he has picked five names which will constitute the new selection committee. They are Jupana Jayawardene (Chairman), Savantha De Saram, Lanil Tennakoon, Graham Raux and Norman Silva.