No club 7’s rugby this year

The Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union’s (SLRFU) Interim Committee (IC) has decided to dispense with the popular inter-club sevens rugby tournament which usually acts as the bellwether of the domestic league season in view of the sevens rugby calendar drawn by the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU).
“The ARFU has indicated to the SLRFU the regional Sevens tournaments will be staged towards the latter part of the year,” Chairman of the SLRFU IC Dr. Maiya Gunasekera told LAKBIMAnEWS.
“Hence we decided to do away with the normal club sevens tournament for 2010 at the start of the year, and the incoming Council would decide what domestic sevens tournaments would be staged this year.”
Asked if the new SLRFU Council would be swayed to kick off the season with the club sevens tournament which has been a fixture of the local rugby schedule for years, Dr. Gunasekera opined that the decision to forgo the tournament had been reached with the consensus of the incoming President of the SLRFU Asanga Seneviratne who is also a member of the current SLRFU IC.
The SLRFU IC Chairman added that the new Council could draw up the sevens programme for the national team depending on the schedule mapped out by the ARFU.
He said any final decision on that would hinge on the officials who get elected at an eagerly anticipated Annual General Meeting (AGM) which is expected to be held during February this year.
Meanwhile, Dr. Gunasekera also stated that a Special General Meeting (AGM) had been called for Jan 29 (Friday) to ratify the newly drafted constitution to the SLRFU by all its affiliated Provincial Unions after which nominations will be called for the AGM.
He observed that the dates for the kick off for the inter-club league and knock-out tournaments would also be decided by the new SLRFU Council after the AGM.
- (JK)