Samoa will give a tough time for the defending champions Fiji at the Carlton 7s Sri Lanka rugby tournament when the second edition of the two-day international tournament kicks off on November 27 at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Sri Lanka will kick off with a tough opener against South Africa. Other two outfits in the Lankan group are New Zealand and China.
Tournament Director George Simpkin speaking to the Sunday Times said the event will be a colourful one with former All Blacks skipper Tana Umanga coming in as a Guest invitee. Umanga (37) played as a winger and centre for 8 long years from 1997 to 2005. He played in 79 Test matches for All Blacks scoring 185 points. Director of the tournament Simpkin who was instrumental in organizing the Hong Kong Sevens and later coached Hong Kong, China and now is the national coach of the Germany Rugby Team. He was also the founder director of the Singer Sri Lankan rugby sevens in 2000.
George further said that there will be 16 international teams, including hosts Sri Lanka, pooled into four groups. “The whole idea of changing the format from last year was to give the Asian teams some exposure with the top rugby 7s teams of the world. With Portugal pulling out at the last minute they will be replaced by Uganda who are no pushovers in sevens rugby”.
George further said the organizers will do their level best to get IRB approval for the next year’s tournament. As this tournament is one week prior to Dubai Sevens and two weeks prior to Durban Sevens the timing is ideal for the International sides to come here and dish out some Champaign rugby before the big ones.
He ended by saying that champions are set to receive US dollars 25,000 and the runners-up US dollars 15,000 and the two losing semi-finalists US dollars 5000 each. “This cash award is second only to Hong Kong Sevens who are awarding US dollars 125,000”.
Since International Rugby Board and Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) giving permission to the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) to conduct a under 20 sevens tournament this years Carlton sevens edition will not see any schools game.
New Zealand, South Africa and Australia will field sides with players from their national and development pools. Fiji, Kenya, Samoa, Spain, Uganda, Korea, Germany, Japan, China, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka are expected to field their regular national sides.
Group A: Fiji, Spain, Korea, Malaysia
Group B: Kenya, Australia, Germany, Chinese Taipei
Pool C: Samoa, Uganda, Japan, Kazakhstan
Pool D: New Zealand, South Africa, China, Sri Lanka |
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