The Sri Lanka Sevens is an annual international rugby sevens tournament held in Sri Lanka.[1] Sponsored by telecommunications provider Dialog, the event has been part of the Asian Sevens Series since 2015. It was founded in 1999 as the Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7s.
For ten seasons from 1999 to 2008, the tournament was hosted by the Kandy Sports Club at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy. National men's teams from Asia and Europe were regular competitors. The event moved to Colombo for the 2009 and 2010 seasons after the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union formed a partnership with the Tharunyata Hetak youth organisation to organise the Sri Lanka Sevens tournament.[2]
The international team format was replaced in 2011 by the Carlton Super Sevens series, a competition featuring ten domestic Sri Lankan franchises. After four seasons the international format was re-established for 2015 with the Dialog Sri Lanka Sevens, held in Colombo.
History
Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7s Logo
Singer Sri Lankan Sevens (1999–2008)
Initially the competition was part of the Kandy Sports Club's 125th anniversary celebrations in 1999.[3][4] The first tournament was limited to ten Asian rugby playing countries.[4] A schools event ran concurrently with the international competition, with sixteen schools competing.
The inaugural cup was won by South Korea in Kandy in 1999.[3][5] The tournament was made an open event and expanded to 16 teams in 2000,[4] with teams from Europe competing. In that year and the following, Chinese Taipei won the cup.[3][5] Portugal won in 2002.[3][5] In 2003 teams from Africa (Kenya, Morocco and the Arabian Gulf) and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the Cook Islands) competed and the Kenyan national team was the winner of the cup.[5]
The 2004 tournament was played as the Asian qualifier for the 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens, and was once again limited to the Asian rugby playing nations.[3] The winner was Japan,[5] with Chinese Taipei and South Korea (second and third respectively) also qualifying for the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The tournament was subsequently recognised by the International Rugby Board as an IRB satellite event.[3][4] In 2005 Japan won the cup.[5] South Korea and Hong Kong won in 2006 and 2007, respectively,[5] however the Japanese team was conspicuous by its absence.[3]
Carlton Sports Club, the sports wing of Tharunyata Hetak (A Tomorrow for Youth), took over the running of the Sri Lanka Sevens in a partnership with the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union in 2009.[2] The tournament was moved to Colombo. It was officially recognised by the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) in that year,[6] and became the last event of the 2009 IRB Asian Sevens Series.[2] Japan returned to play in the tournament and won the competition for a third time in 2009.[5]
A number of non-official national sides competed in the 2010 tournament, with the Fiji Barbarians becoming the eventual winners.[5] The 2010 event was also the last of the Carlton Sri Lanka Sevens under the international teams format due to the introduction of the Carlton Super 7s series, featuring local Sri Lankan franchises for the 2011 season.
Carlton Super 7s series logo
Carlton Super 7s series (2011–2014)
In 2011, the Carlton Sri Lanka 7s was transformed into the Carlton Super 7s series; a domestic club competition comprising two tournaments hosted on consecutive weekends. This format continued until 2014, although additional selection tournaments for local players were included at the start of the final two seasons.b
Prominent players from around the world were contracted to join each local franchise to raise the standard of competition.[7] The tournament events were held at various locations in Sri Lanka, including Kandy, Galle and Koggala. The final leg of the series for each season was hosted in Colombo.
The Carlton Super 7s series was contested by ten teams, representing the nine provinces of the country and the Jaffna region:
Central Kings
Eastern Eagles
Jaffna Challengers
North Central Typhoons
North Western Blacks
Northern Gladiators
Sabaragamuwa Stallions
Southern Sharks
Uva Vipers
Western Warriors
Colombo Sevens (2015–present)
Following a sponsorship deal with telecommunications company Dialog, the international teams format was re-established in 2015 with the tournament hosted in Colombo. The 2015 event became the third and final leg of the Asian Sevens Series. The tournament was contested by eleven international teams over two days in October, with Japan the eventual winner, Hong Kong runners-up and Sri Lanka in third position. In 2016 the tournament was again the final leg of the Asian Sevens Series and contested by eight teams. The tournament was won by Hong Kong, with runners-up South Korea and third place going to China.
^a The Jaffna Challengers and North Western Blacks were declared joint champions of the 2012 Carlton Super Sevens series.
^b Local tournaments (shown in italics) were added to the Carlton series for the final two seasons. These tournaments were not part of the Carlton Super 7s competition that included marquee international players, but were used as preparation to select the best local players for the main competition later in the season.[12] In 2013 the local tournaments were at Nuwara Eliya and Nawalapitiya.[12] In 2014 they were held at Kurunegala and Beliatta.[16]
^c Colombo was scheduled for 26–27 September as the third leg of the 2020 Asian Sevens Series,[23] prior to August 2020 when Asia Rugby cancelled all their remaining competitions for the year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[24]
^d Colombo was scheduled for 25–26 September as the third leg of the 2021 Asian Sevens Series,[25] but was subsequently replaced in the calendar by Dubai.[26]
