Mercantile Rugby 7s, at Race Course
View(s):
Action at Mercantile Rugby 7s
The Mercantile Rugby Football Association (MRFA), under the Presidency of Old Peterite, Shanaka Fernando, will break tradition, when it conducts the 47th edition of the Mercantile Rugby ’7s’, together with the 2nd Women’s Tag Rugby ’7s’ at the Race Course International Rugby Stadium, Reid Avenue, Colombo 7, from July 21-23, shifting from the CR&FC grounds, Longdon Place, for the first time, since its inception.
Entries are called from MRFA affiliated firms and new teams for both tournaments with entry forms available with the following MRFA Officials.
Shanaka Fernando- Informatics (Pvt) Ltd., 106 Reid Avenue, Colombo 4; Mahesh Wijenayake- HNB City Office, 16 Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 1 and Mindika Jayasinghe- Sampath Bank PLC., 50, Dudley Senanayake Mawatha, Colombo 8, or downloaded via MRFA website: www.mrfasrilanka.lk.. Entries for both tournaments will close with the aforesaid on July 12.
The Captains’ briefing is on July 5, 6.30 pm, at the CR&FC Pavilion PDR.
The draw for the Groups will be on July 17, 6.30 pm, at the CR&FC Pavilion PDR.
Shanaka Fernando
Flashback to 2016. The Tournament was held from July 15-17 at the CR&FC grounds, Longdon Place. 32 teams participated; Access Group regained the coveted ‘Cup’ Championship, after 15 years, beating Dialog Axiata ‘A’ (35-12); Nation Lanka Finance won the ‘Plate’ Championship, beating John Keells ‘A’ (28-22); John Keells ‘B’ won the ‘Bowl’ Championship, beating Dialog Axiata ‘B’ (29-5) and Brandix Essentials won the ‘Shield’ Championship, beating PABC Bank (5-0)
Ceylon Tobacco Co. won the inaugural Women’s Tag Rugby 7s, beating Virtusa (5-0).
Incumbent, MRFA President, Shanaka Fernando, in his 2nd term of office, holds the unique and record of participating in 30 unbroken Mercantile Rugby ’7s’, from 1982 to 2012, representing Heath & Co. and Metropolitan Communications. Fernando hung up his boots at age 50 in 2013.
He was MRFASecretary for several years, before taking over from Mahesh Wijenayake. The other Past Presidents during the past 25 years were: Saliya Udugama, Late Captain Mathew George, Ray Abeywardena, Roshan Tissera, Marco de Silva, late Nimal Gunasekera, Prasanna Silva, Nishantha Wickramage, Romesh de Livera, Lalith Hewage and Vasantha Ramanayake. Â Â - LR Â