Imperial College of Business Studies continued its 40th anniversary celebrations by conducting the inaugural edition of the “IMPERIAL BLAZE 2025” rugby 7s tournament successfully. It was played on Saturday (28th June) at the Racecourse grounds in Colombo 07. In the final Imperial Blues and Imperial Reds were declared as the joint champions.
Imperial Blues and Imperial Reds with the Cup Championship
In total, eight teams representing various universities and higher education institutes participated in the tournament. In the preliminary round, the teams were drawn into two groups:
Group A: Imperial Blues, Edith Cowan University (ECU) Blacks, Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT Campus), SLTC Research University
Group B: Imperial Reds, Edith Cowan University (ECU) Whites, Imperial Kandy, SAB Campus
During the group stage, hosts were roaring, and Imperial Blues and Imperial Reds emerged as the group leaders by winning all their pool games. Alongside them, Imperial Kandy and IIT Campus advanced to the cup semi-finals as the best-performing second-place teams from their respective groups. All other teams were through to the Plate semifinals.
In the Plate semifinals, ECU Blacks and SLTC Campus emerged victorious by beating SAB Campus and ECU Whites, respectively.
In the first cup semi-final, the formidable Imperial Blues managed to edge out the spirited Imperial Kandy outfit after a closely contested battle. In the other cup semi-final, Imperial Reds went to a dominating win over IIT Campus.
In the much-awaited Plate Final, SLTC University and ECU Blacks fought for the silverware. Firstly, team SLTC went through to a try by piercing a gap in the middle of the defense. Later, SLTC managed to extend their lead to 14 – 00, thanks to a brilliant pop-up pass given to an unmarked player. Later in the half, determined ECU Blacks came up with a brilliant display of skills to score twice to equalize the game at full time.
Hence, the “Sudden Death Principal” was applied to decide the Plate-winning side, where the first scoring side will walk away with the title. There, the ECU Blacks were lucky enough to complete their comeback rally to clinch the title.
The Plate winning ECU Blacks team
In the third-place match, losing cup semi-finalists Imperial Kandy and IIT Campus were in the fray. After a hard-fought first half, IIT took a 07 – 00 lead at halftime. With the start of the second half, the Hill Country boys managed to plant an equalizing try. A few minutes later, Imperial Kandy took the lead with another unconverted try. At the dying stage of the game, IIT struck back with their second try to equalize the score. As the conversion went over, IIT managed to seal the game but with a slender margin of two points.
In the grand final, the two blockbuster sides from the hosts, Imperial Blues and Imperial Reds, clashed for glory. Imperial Reds took the first blood of the game through a brilliant cross pass, which was followed by a long cut-out pass, creating an overlap. Then Imperial Blues made a fine reply with a 100-meter sprint try from their own try line. In the first minute of the second half, Imperial Blues went for another try with the advantage of a missed tackle to gain the lead. But later, Imperial Reds square the game with a converted try. Though the spectators expected a thrilling and fierce final, because of the fellowship of the finalists, the actual tempo of a final couldn’t be witnessed.
At the full-time whistle, the score remained at 14 all. But the fellow teams from the same university, Imperial College, agreed to share the trophy, and the match never went to a sudden death phase.
Plate Runners-up – SLTC University team
Preliminary Round
- ECU Blacks 00 – 14 Imperial Blues
- ECU Whites 10 – 5 SAB campus
- IIT 12 – 12 SLTC
- Imperial Kandy 00 – 17 Imperial Reds
- ECU Blacks 05 – 10 IIT
- Imperial Blues 45 – 00 SLTC
- SAB Campus 00 – 45 Imperial Kandy
- Imperial Reds 31 – 00 ECU Whites
- Imperial Blues 07 – 05 IIT
- SLTC 14 – 26 ECU Blacks
- Imperial Kandy 35 00 ECU Whites
- SAB Campus 00 – 35 Imperial Reds
Cup Semi-finals
- Imperial Blues 19 – 12 Imperial Kandy
- Imperial Reds 19 – 00 IIT
Plate Semi-finals
- ECU Blacks 37 – 00 SAB Campus
- SLTC 27 – 05 ECU Whites
Third Place Match
- Imperial Kandy 12 – 14 IIT
Plate Final
- SLTC 14 – 14 ECU Blacks (At sudden death SLTC 14 – 19 ECU Blacks)
The Final
- Imperial Blues 14 – 14 Imperial Reds (Joint Champs)
 at the Racecourse grounds in Colombo 07. In the final Imperial Blues and Imperial Reds were declared as the joint champions. ){kind=link}