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Tuesday October 6, 2009

Sabah picked to host Borneo 7s of IRB series

By S. RAMAGURU

SUBANG JAYA: Sabah have been picked to host the Malaysian leg (Borneo 7s) of the IRB Asian Sevens series at the Likas Stadium in Kota Kinabalu from Oct 31-Nov 1.

The Borneo 7s is a change in format of competition from the annual 10s to make it one of the legs of the Asian series. And there will be competitions for both men and women involving national teams.

A total of 14 Asian countries will compete in the men’s competition – Hong Kong, Guam, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore, China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Six teams will feature in the women’s event – Japan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Singapore, India and Malaysia.

All for rugger: Sponsors for the Borneo 7s Rugby (from left) Fred Moe, Sabah Rugby Union president Velayathun Tan, Latif Khan and Hazem Abdul Rahman posing with Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek at the launch Monday.

The Malaysian leg is one of the six in the series and the first was completed in Shanghai on Sept 13. The other four legs will be held in Subic (Oct 10-11), Brunei (Oct 24-25), Kish Island (Nov 20-22) and Sri Lanka (Nov 28-29).

The Asian 7s will provide the selection of teams for the world series next year. And the Sabah Rugby Union president, Velayathun Tan, said yesterday that only two legs of the series – Shanghai and Borneo – would provide ranking points to pick the Asian representatives.

“This is a great honour for Sabah and the culmination of the hard work we have put in to develop the game. We also want to use this meet as a stepping stone to bid for the World 7s in the near future and take Malaysian rugby to another level,” he said.

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek was in attendance yesterday at the launch of the Borneo 7s.

“I am happy to see this development in Sabah and rest assured we will provide support for this meet. I think it augurs well for rugby in the country when affiliates take the trouble to organise top level events and step up their development efforts,” he added.

The Borneo 10s, a competition for clubs, was inaugurated in 2001 and the change in format to 7s could become permanent from this year.

“The club competition will still be held simultaneously. It will now be a 7s tournament and it will be a little low-key this year,” said Velayathun.

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