Three new venues to boost Sri Lanka Rugby

Chris Dhambarage

RUGBY: Rugby in Sri Lanka is set to receive a tremendous boost with the formation of new venues in Colombo and in the suburbs following the non availability of the grounds used by the three armed forces due to security reasons.

The difficulty in finding grounds for the three armed forces was brought to the notice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa by DIG Nimal Lewke President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) who also received a sum of fifty million rupees from the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Foundation for the development of the game, at a ceremony held at the Temple Trees yesterday.

In response to this matter President Mahinda Rajapaksa took prompt action and has requested the Mayor of Colombo to help the SLRFU by allowing them to maintain the Old Race Course grounds at Reid Avenue, the Nomads grounds at Viharamaha Devi Park and the Shalika grounds in Narahenpita to be re developed and used as match venues for the forthcoming season.

The main reason for this is because some of the top rugby grounds in Colombo such as the Galle Face ground of Sri Lanka Army Sports Club, the Police Park, Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club grounds in Welisara and the Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club grounds in Katunayake have been abandoned due to security reasons.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also quite eager to see the game been promoted in the Uva Province and already he has allocated the Badulla Municipality ground to be utilised as a major venue for rugby games this season.

In fact the forthcoming inter club rugby season which begins on May 18 will see a total of sixteen teams vying for honours. Petersons Sports Club, Kandy Youth Sports Club and Kurunegala Sports Club have re-entered the ‘A’ Division League Rugby Championship this year.

The three new teams will increase the number of sides to 16 from 12 teams that played last year. In addition there is likely to be a Combined Universities outfit competing in this years tournament.

The three new sides Petersons SC, Kandy Youth SC, and Kurunegala SC together with the Combined Universities will play in the A 2 with Galle SC, Dim-Dicks and Jawatte Lions SC.

The eight sides in A 1 will include Kandy Sports Club, CR and FC, CH and FC, Havelocks SC, Sri Lanka Army SC, Sri Lanka Air Force SC, Sri Lanka Police SC and Old Zahirians SC.

The first-round of the ‘A’ division league tournament will be from May 18 to July 1 and the second round will be from July 6 to August 5. The top six teams in the A 1 first-round will figure in the second-round for the Cup Championship while the last two sides will figure in the Plate championship with the top six of A 2.

However the local rugby season will kick off on March 3 and 4 with the first Pro sevens tournament to be worked off at Radella which is held to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Dimbulla A and CC.

Ten teams have been invited to compete for honours in this tournament. They are Kandy SC, CR and FC, CH and FC, Havelocks SC, Sri Lanka Army SC, Sri Lanka Air Force SC, Sri Lanka Police SC, Old Zahirians SC, Galle RFU and Dim-Dicks.

Meanwhile the Colombo sevens is scheduled to take place on March 17 and 18. In addition the knock-out championship for the Clifford Cup will be from August 10 to 18 in Kandy, President’s Trophy from August 24 to September 1 and the Singer-SriLankan International 7’s from September 7 to 9. Also on the card is the Inter-Provincial Championships from September 15 to 30.