Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's
Tournament logo in 2015
|
|
| Sport | Rugby sevens |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999
(Kandy)
2016 (re-est. Colombo) |
| No. of teams | 24 |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Hong Kong (2016)
|
| Most titles |
 Japan (4 titles)
|
The Sri Lanka Sevens is an annual international rugby sevens tournament held in Sri Lanka. Originally developed as the Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's, the event was founded in 1999 and has featured as a part of the Asian Sevens Series in past seasons.
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.
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 Colombo Sevens held in Colombo.
Initially the competition was part of the Kandy Sports Club's 125th anniversary celebrations in 1999. The first tournament was limited to ten Asian rugby playing countries. A schools event ran concurrently with the international competition, with sixteen schools competing.
The original naming rights sponsors of the tournament were Sri Lankan Airlines and Singer Sri Lanka. Other sponsors included Rolls Royce, Airbus Industries, SITA, Haesl, IAE International, CFM, John Keells Elephant House, Lion Brewery and Amaya Resorts.
The inaugural cup was won by South Korea in Kandy in 1999. The tournament was made an open event and expanded to 16 teams in 2000, with teams from Europe competing. In that year and the following, Chinese Taipei won the cup. Portugal won in 2002. 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.
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