Black Beauties join the Stallions

• All Black stars feature in playing and coaching setup for the Sabaragamuwa Stallions at the 2012 Carlton Super 7’s

Sabaragamuwa Stallions, one of the founding franchises of the Carlton Super 7’s, announces the signing of four All Black seven’s players to the team for the 2012 tournament to be held over 2 weekends in May and June. 

Jack Wilson, Mark Jackman, Bryce Heem and Johnathan Malo will feature for the Stallions during the 2012 campaign, when the tournament gets under way at the end on 26 May. All four players have served as 7’s players for New Zealand this year.

Jack Wilson emerged as a star during the recent Hong Kong sevens, by scoring several tries for New Zealand, including in their semi-final clash against South Africa. Mark Jackman was called up for the first time to the All Black squad earlier this year during the IRB series games in Wellington, while Johnathan Malo got his call up at the recently held IRB Rugby 7’s tournament in Las Vegas.

Bryce Heem was part of the Auckland team that took top honors Pub Charity National Sevens and has been a regular part of the New Zealand National 7’s setup over the last few years, playing in 13 World Series tournaments including winning a world title. Bryce was named as ‘one to watch’ in 2011 by AttheSevens.com.

The players are joined by head coach of the team, Charles Baxter, also a former All Black Sevens player and current head coach of New Zealand Rugby Union side, Bay of Plenty.

Following the auction of domestic players, the international stars will be joined by Charith Senevirathne and Saliya Handapangoda (who featured in last year’s tournament) and the addition of Sasjith Saranga, Andrew Benson, Avantha Hettiarachchi, Gayan Liyanage, Heshan Gunarathne and Dinesh Liyanage to the local contingent.  Fans of Sabaragamuwa Stallions can follow the team during the tournament through their Facebook page www.facebook.com/sabaragamuwastallions where all fixture information and results will be listed.

Sabaragamuwa Stallions is managed by NSports; a national franchise of Sri Lanka’s elite rugby 7’s competition, Carlton Rugby 7’s. The franchise is owned by Nimal Perera who is the Managing Director of Royal Ceramics, Chairman of Pan Asia Bank and Deputy Chairman of Vallibel One. For more information or images contact the Sabragamuwa Stallions via email at [email protected]