Singer Rugby Asiad from November 3 to 10

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

RUGBY: Ten countries - Chinese Taipei, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, India, Qatar, Pakistan and Iran have confirmed their participation in the biggest event in the Asian rugby calendar - the Singer Rugby Asiad which will be worked off from November 3 to 10, 2007 in Colombo, at CR and FC grounds, Havelock Park and Royal College Sports Complex.

“The SLRFU has made all arrangements to conduct the Rugby Asiad on a grand scale and all visiting teams will be provided maximum security,” said Fernando.

The Colombo tournament will be the last Asiad as the ARFU has decided to conduct the tournament on a different format from next year. Singer Sri Lanka is the main sponsor with Mobitel and Toyota as the co-sponsors.

Teams will be put up at Galadari Hotel while the product sponsors will be Zeppelin, Hemtours, Casilan 90, SriLankan Airlines, John Keells Holdings, Excel World and Adidas International. International Referees will officiate in the tournament and several journalists from participating countries will visit Sri Lanka to cover the event.

“Korea has still not confirmed their participation in the Singer Rugby Asiad but we are hopeful that they will express their willingness to take part within the next seven days,” said the Chief Executive officer of the SLRFU Dilory Fernando.

“We have written to the Korea RFU and are awaiting a favourable reply by them regarding their participation in the Singer Rugby Asiad” said Fernando. Japan (which is taking part in the Rugby World Cup in France) Arabian Gulf and Singapore have indicated their inability to take part in the Rugby Asiad.

Hong Kong too may not take part as New Zealand is due to tour Hong Kong in November.

Sri Lanka last hosted the Rugby Asiad 17 years ago and came up with a superb performance.

They went down fighting to the formidable Hong Kong by 13-21 in the curtain raiser of the tournament and followed up with a historic 9-6 win over Chinese Taipei and came up with a stupendous performance in the final Group match against the mighty South Koreans before losing by 16-26. The South Koreans went onto win the title by beating Japan in the final.