SLR President Rizly Illyas (Pic by Kushan Pathiraja/Daily Mirror)

• No ‘home and away’ concept in league 
• Down south, up country to embrace rugby 

By Harsha Amarasinghe and Sandun Kodithuwakku

Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) are keen on prioritizing the development of 7’s rugby as they plan to organize top flight events in the down south and up country in a move to take the game to the villages.

The standards of Sri Lanka 7’s rugby had fallen miserably under the previous administration (from 2018-2020), from finishing second overall in Asia in 2016. However, the newly appointed SLR President Rizly Illyas is confident of getting Sri Lanka back to the top.

“I think it is very clear that we can achieve a lot in the 7’s format, so as the parent body, it’s our responsibility to understand that and make plans in a way that we can become one of the best teams in Asia,” Illyas said during a press conference on Friday.

SLR have planned to organize four club level 7’s tournaments which is expected to provide an opportunity for number of  local players to showcase their talent in the shortest format while Illyas also revealed the plans to take the game down south and the up country.

“We hope to play at least one leg in Galle and then Dimbula or Dikoya as well because it is necessary to take the game outside of Colombo and Kandy. We need the whole of Sri Lanka to contribute to the game, so we have to plan everything in a way that would serve the best for the country's rugby,” added Illyas.

The idea of taking the game to areas outside of Colombo would require the green light from the Ministry of Health due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the traditional inter-club fifteen-a-side rugby competition will be shortened to 11 weeks from 16 weeks.

The concept of playing ‘home and away’ will not exist any longer as teams will only meet once before the eight teams are split to two tiers.

SLR are also set to organize a ‘Under-24’ tournament involving eight sides as a platform to hundreds of school leavers to start off their careers.

The rugby season is expected to get underway in October with the 7’s tournaments in Colombo.