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`Sevens Saga' a history of seven a side rugby in Sri Lanka written by Neil Wijeratne contains the story of seven a side rugby in Sri Lanka from its beginning at Ratnapura in 1931 to the Bowl winning performance in Hong Kong in 1984 and to hosting of the first ever Asian Sevens tournament in Kandy in 1999.

The book gives a brief summary on how the first ever sevens rugby match was organised and worked off at Ratnapura between the Planters of the area and the local Police team way back in 1931. The match was organised by Welshman K. F. Jenkins and there players of all sorts, who had played 15 a side rugby earlier, who had witnessed but not played the game and some others who had never touched a rugby ball before.

Jenkins himself participated in the match as the scrum half of the Ratnapura Police team and his efforts were duly rewarded when he was able to breach the opponents defence to plant a try and eventually sealed his team's 21 points to 3 victory.

However the book also records the first ever major seven a side rugby tournament to be held in Sri Lanka which was the Layard Cup. The inaugural tournament was held in July 1941 at the Havelock Race Course in Colombo with the Governor Caldecott as the chief guest. Although the tournament was meant for the law enforcement officers, to add colour to this historic event, an invitation inter club competition was also conducted.

In the invitation tournament for the clubs Havelocks SC beat All European CH and FC by 3 points to nil to confront CR and FC in the finals. The club final in which CR and FC emerged victorious by 28 points to nil was refereed by Mathewson.

The book also contains a full report on CR and FC's 25th anniversary tournament held in 1948. This tournament thereafter became an annual event in the domestic rugby calendar with visitors from India participating whenever the All India tournament was held in Colombo.

In addition Sri Lanka's maiden victory in sevens rugby was witnessed in Ballygunge, Calcutta when they defeated the famous Sookias' team, the Armenian Sports Club Calcutta in the 1959 All India seven a side competition. The book also provides valuable information about Sri Lanka's performances in the famous Hong Kong sevens tournament starting from their maiden appearance in 1976 to their victory in the Bowl championship in 1984.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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