Sri Lanka face NZ, England in Commonwealth Games Rugby opener
The Sri Lanka Men’s Team will face New Zealand while the Women’s Team will be up against England in their opening matches of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Seven-A-Side Rugby Tournament, which begins on July 29 at the Coventry Stadium in Birmingham, England.
The Sri Lanka Men’s Team will come out for the first time at 1.30 p..m. (Sri Lanka time) for their opening Pool ‘A’ fixture and will take on England in their second preliminary round match on the same day at 10.00 p.m. (Sri Lanka time).
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Women’s Team will start their campaign with a Pool ‘A’ game against England at 1.30 p.m. (Sri Lanka time) and will meet New Zealand in their second preliminary round match on the same day at 10.00 p.m. (Sri Lanka time).
The Sri Lanka Men’s Team will play their third and final preliminary round match against Samoa on July 30 at 1.30 p.m. (Sri Lanka time) and the Women’s Team, the only Asian country in this competition, will take on Canada in their third and final game of Pool ‘A’ at the same time.
Australia, Fiji, Scotland and South Africa are the teams vying for honours in Pool ‘B’. The two top teams of each group in the Women’s Tournament will advance to the semi-finals, scheduled for July 30 commencing at 1.30 p.m. (Sri Lanka time).
The playoff matches for the seventh and fifth places of the Women’s Tournament will take place on July 31 commencing at 10.30 p.m. (Sri Lanka time) followed by the Bronze Medal match and the final encounter.
Meanwhile, the quarter-finals of the Men’s Tournament will be held on July 30 commencing at 10.00 p.m. (Sri Lanka time) while the playoff matches, Bronze Medal match and the final will take place on July 31 commencing at 3.00 p.m. (Sri Lanka time).
Meanwhile, Broadstreet Rugby Football Club in Coventry has been chosen as the Rugby Sevens training venue due to the fantastic facilities they have available for athletes at the Commonwealth Games.
The ground has four World Rugby standard pitches, recovery areas, changing areas and large internal spaces for teams to utilise before or after training. In addition, the ground also has an ideal location as it is situated close to where the Rugby Sevens players will be staying.
New Zealand are the double defending Commonwealth Games champions having won the Men’s and Women’s titles in 2018 at Gold Coast, Australia. Rugby Sevens was first played in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 with the inclusion of a Men’s competition, in which New Zealand defeated Fiji to take the Gold Medal.
The inaugural Women’s Sevens Rugby competition took place in 2018 where New Zealand defeated Australia in the final encounter.
Men’s fixtures (July 29): Australia v Jamaica, Kenya v Uganda, New Zealand v Sri Lanka, England v Samoa, South Africa v Malaysia, Scotland v Tonga, Canada v Wales, Fiji v Zambia, Kenya v Jamaica, Australia v Uganda, England v Sri Lanka, New Zealand v Samoa, Scotland v Malaysia, South Africa v Tonga, Wales v Zambia, Fiji v Canada.
(July 30): Uganda v Jamaica, Australia v Kenya, Samoa v Sri Lanka, New Zealand v England, Tonga v Malaysia, South Africa v Scotland, Canada v Zambia, Fiji v Wales.
Women’s fixtures (July 29): Australia v South Africa, Fiji v Scotland, England v Sri Lanka, New Zealand v Canada, Fiji v South Africa, Australia v Scotland, New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Canada v England. (July 30): Scotland v South Africa, Australia v Fiji, Canada v Sri Lanka,
New Zealand v England.