SAGT felicitates Borneo 7s Champions

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SAGT Womens Rugby

South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), who are the sponsors of Sri Lanka Women’s Rugby, felicitated the team that emerged champions at the Borneo 7s 2017 in Malaysia, at the Swimming Club last evening.

This is the first time the Sri Lanka women’s team toured for a 7s tournament out of their usual Asian Sevens Series schedule. It was a great effort by the ladies as they played some brilliant rugby during the tournament to finish as unbeaten champions a fortnight ago.

Match Results

Sri Lanka 48 – 00 Sabah Eagles
Sri Lanka 26 – 05 Thailand
Sri Lanka 29 – 05 Malaysia
Sri Lanka 12 – 05 Thailand

The highlight of the tournament was the team beating Thailand twice whereas they had failed to do so on the last two occasions that the teams met in the 7s arena. Japan, China, Hong Kong are the top three teams in the women’s rankings.

Speaking to the gathering Dhashma Karunaratne, Commercial & Marketing Manager of SAGT said, “In rugby we see a lot of agility, boldness and a lot of passion, most importantis the team work. We want sportswomen to become great leaders in the corporate world and we (SAGT) will continue to support the team.”

Priyantha Ekanayake, CEO of Sri Lanka Rugby also addressed the gathering, saying, “Hats off to you all, we know how important women’s rugby is, I think it’s the fastest growing sport in the world. We knew there is potential and talent but we put more focus on the men’s team. I think credit should go to Asanga Senavirathne and Inthi Marikar for believing and pushing for this tournament.”

President of Sri Lanka Rugby Asanga Senavirathne also said a few words at the dinner “We have around 400 plus women playing rugby and we have a vision of making it to a minimum of 5000 by 2020, your performance will now help us to increase participation and you all are the ambassadors of this country.” He also praised the coach Sudath Sampath and the team on their performance.

Furthermore there will be more incentives coming given to the women’s team on the basis of performance and the next target for the women’s team is to claim the top spot in the Asian series, which will be held in September.