KIK Cola Junior Super 16 Rugby Championships (U10 + U12)

In view of tournaments are limited to one or two days of competitive rugby for the whole year for players of Under 10 and Under 12 Under the present set up, one of the biggest challenges faced in developing the Junior Rugby at school levels has been the ability to keep the interest on the youngsters in the game.

JKH Vice President and CCS Head of Beverages Chandima Fernando speaks at the press conference. Others from left: CCS Brand Activation Manager (Consumer Foods Section) Maithri U. Vithanage,  Chairman Organising Committee Summa Navaratnam and Organising Committee Secretary Shahid Sangani

Thus, most juniors have only an opportunity to play in about four to five competitive matches. Overall a player has very little opportunity to participate in any competitive rugby and hence tend to loss interest in the game at an early stage of their development  Identifying the need to increase the opportunity of participating in tournaments  and at the same time develop the basic skills and match sense a group of Old Boy enthusiast from some of the leading schools in Colombo have been organising KIK Cola Junior Super 16’s Rugby Championships (U10+U12) for the past three years.

The tournament which started with four schools (Super eight) has proved to be very popular and expanded to six schools (Super 12) in 2010 and to 9 schools in 2011, namely D.S. Senanayake, Isipathana, Royal, St Joseph, St Peters, S Thomas’ Prep – Kollupitiya, S Thomas’ – Mt Lavania, Wesley, and Zahira Colleges.

The tournament consists of four rounds starting from 8a.m. and the dates for this year are 31 Aug (Friday) 29 Sep (Saturday)

Royal Sports Complex is provided free of charge as venue for the tournament by Royal College in recognition of the importance of this tournament to develop and nurture the Rugby Talent at a young age. The Match officials are nominated by Sri Lanka Rugby Football Referees Union and in addition the organisers ensure the full safety of the players with Ambulance and Doctor in attendance at all times. The game is conducted under the Guidelines of International Rugby Union (IRB) with emphasis on Safety, Fun and Skill development of the Kids.  The tournament will be managed by a committee from Old Boys Representative of the Participating Schools and is being sponsored for the second year running by KIK COLA.

A total of four teams from each school (two teams each of Under 10 and Under 12) will participate with close to 500 players getting exposed to competitive Rugby at each round and played over four rounds