By Moorosi Tsiane
MASERU — The First National Sevens rugby tournament will roar into life at the Police Training College grounds on Saturday.
The tournament will feature eight teams affiliated to the Federation of Lesotho Rugby (FLR), Maseru Kings (who compete in the South African Rugby League), Centre for Accounting Studies Wolves Pacts and Alpha Wolves, Special Operations Unit Black Cobras, the Barbarians, Cannibals, Blue Marines and the National University Of Lesotho side Spears.
The tournament will kick off with preliminary matches followed by the knock-out phase and will later culminate with the championship game where the top two teams will compete for the first prize.
FLR President, Daniel Aylward, believes that the tourney will be an opportunity to promote and introduce rugby to more Basotho.
“This tournament is not just an opportunity to promote the sport but to introduce even more Basotho to rugby.
“It will give us a chance to celebrate the amazing growth the sport has seen, a chance for our newer players to compete against other clubs and a chance for one of the teams to be crowned”, Aylward said.
FLR General Secretary, Litšitso Motšeremeli, was full of praise for their sponsors which include telecommunications giants, Econet Lesotho and pleaded with the corporate world to invest in rugby to help grow the newly introduced sport in the country.
“We have been in talks with different companies to sponsor the sport and I believe they will see the need to invest in sports especially rugby because it is new in this country.” Motšeremeli said.
Rugby sevens is a special format of the game played by seven players on each side comprising of two seven minutes halves. Rugby sevens will feature as a new medal sport at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
