Kik-cola Junior rugby on July 3 at Royal Sports complex

After their successful first tourney for the year, the organisers of Kik-Cola Junior Super 16, Under- 10 and 12 Rugby Championship will go on stage on July 3 at the Royal College Sports Complex. The second of the four- legged tournament which already has an exceptionally huge following, is expected to draw a large number of spectators.

According to Shahid Sangani, the secretary of the combined committee which includes eight leading rugby playing schools in the country, the tournament has created a huge demand from its member and other schools for many aspects. The group which was formed four years ago by an initiative of a group of past players and the members of the rugby committee of D. S. Senanayake College Colombo has grown from strength- tostrength to acquire value.

“Initially the tournament was launched as an answer to give the junior rugby players the much needed match exposure. At present the amount of matches for a junior side is very minimal. We started this tournament in a small scale and by this time it has been converted as a Super 16 tournament,” Sangani said.

The group which includes past rugby players and rugby committee members from D.S. Senanayake, Isipathana, Royal, St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, S. Thomas’ Prep, S. Thomas’, Wesley and Zahira considers that this tournament has been able to provide the junior players much exposure, apart from rugby.

“One of the biggest challenges faced in developing the Junior Rugby at school level has been the ability to keep the interest on the youngsters in the game. I think the combination of nine leading rugby playing schools is a major boost for the youngsters as well as junior rugby in general. We have requests from our member schools to include more teams and from other schools to join our association. But we are not in a position to respond to their requests as at now. We may consider them in time to come,” Sangani added.

This competition which is for the Under-10 and 12 rugby players has been for the past three years a major success. The tournament which started with four schools as ‘Super 8’ proved to be very popular and expanded to six schools in 2010 converting it to a ‘Super 12’ competition. Last year the competition expanded to nine schools, namely, D. S. Senanayake, Isipathana, Royal, St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, S. Thomas’ Prep, S. Thomas’, Wesley and Zahira under the present format. In addition to prominent past players from each school, veteran junior r u g by e x p e rt Summa Navaratnam has been involved with the organising since the inception.

“Mr. Navaratnam’s experience is invaluable as anyone would know. He has been with us for the past three years and this year he was appointed as the chairman of organising committee. He is involved more or less as an advisor of the group. Mr. Navaratnam’s association is a major boost for us,” detailed Sangani.

Apart from the previous Sunday (17), the organisers will stage the tournament on three other days. The competition will continue on July 3, August 31 and September 29 giving the youngsters the experience they