The Race Course International Rugby Stadium in Colombo will light up on 26th July 2014 with the stars of the 2014 Schools rugby season, as ThePapare All Star Rugby Encounter 2014 scrums-down for a scorching battle.
This elite showdown of Schools Rugby between the Colombo Blues and Kandy Red was officially launched at Dialog Arcade Darley Road at a media briefing this evening.
ThePapare All Star Rugby Encounter 2014 organized by www.thepapare.com will be powered by Dialog Axiata PLC. The star-studded event takes place for the 3rd time after a lapse of two years. The years 2010 and 2011 saw very successful competition of this event with players budded at this event going on to wear the national jersey. This year the encounter will be conducted in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLARFA) where the best players from the Western province will come out as the Colombo Blues, whilst the cream of the Central province will be slotted in as the Kandy Reds.
Ravin De Silva – Manager, Online Sports Content, Dialog Axiata PLC communicated the whole concept and a bit of ThePapare All Star Rugby Encounter history “It is the brainchild of the passionate rugby reporters of www.thepapare.com who started this event in 2010. The inaugural event was held at CR & FC which attracted over 6,000 spectators. We expect a full house at Race Course this year as well. This is a great stepping-stone for all the young lads for the club rugby season.”
“Dialog is very happy to be a part of ThePapare All Star Rugby Encounter. Dialog has been sponsoring many sporting events in the recent past. Dialog considers powering sports as powering the passion of the nation. A sport is a vehicle where youth are the wheels. Dialog recently took over www.thepapare.com and now we are together, we work as a team to uplift sports in Sri Lanka. ThePapare All Star Encounter is a great event to link Kandy and Colombo.“ Harsha Samaranayake, Head of Brand & Media, Dialog Axiata PLC stated during the media briefing.
Mr. Harsha Samaranayake, Head of Brand & Media, Dialog Axiata PLC (L) and Mr. Susantha Mendis (R), Secretary, Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association addressing the gathering at the Media conference held on July 16th, 2014
“We were quite pleased to help when the www.thepapare.com came to us with this idea of hosting ThePapare All Star Rugby Encounter. The SLSRFA is responsible for appointing coaches, player selection and conducting practices. This match will be played as a selection trial for the upcoming under 20 Junior Asiad which will be played in Sri Lanka and it is scheduled to be played in September after the G.C.E AL/s in August. This is a great opportunity for all the players to show their talents in playing at different positions from their normal positions at school due to the requirement of their district team.” Susantha Mendis, Secretary, Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association said.
Shenal Deelaka Silva – skipper of Colombo Blues and Tarinda Ratwatte – captain of Kandy Reds posed in the official match jersey and unveiled ThePapare All Star trophy to the gathering during the media conference.
The Buckinghamshire New University will serve as the co-sponsor while the popular radio channel, Yes FM, who has been with this event from the inception, has once again come up as Radio Partner spreading the word through their very robust medium.
Daily Mirror Online & Kelimadala will be the digital media partner giving online publicity to the event whilst, the country’s foremost sports channel, Carlton Sports Network, will serve as the Television Partner.
Tarinda Ratwatte (L), skipper of Kandy Reds and Shenal Deelaka Silva (R), Skipper of Colombo Blues Team
The winner of the Most Popular Schools Rugby Player 2014, a poll run by ThePapare.com during the school season voted for by the fans will be awarded the ‘Most Popular Schools Rugby player Trophy” after the match as well.
