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Lankans at C’wealth Games
By Shamseer Jaleel
Sri Lanka’s sevens stars will be in action after a break of six months when they lock horns with some leading nations in the 2005 Commonwealth games Rugby Tournament which will be played on 16-17 March 2006 in Melbourne, Australia in front of a large Sri Lankan crowd who are settled Down Under.

Tournament top seed will be the All Blacks under coach Gordon Tietjens which won its sixth consecutive IRB Sevens series last season. New Zealand also travel to Melbourne as the defending Commonwealth Games having won the gold medal in Manchester in 2002. New Zealand heads Pool A with Kenya, Wales and Namibia.

Rugby World Cup Sevens 2005 champions and World Games champions Fiji, who won the silver medal in Manchester in 2002, are second seeds. Waisale Serevi's men pipped England to second spot in the 2004/05 IRB Sevens series and head a competitive Pool B, which will see Fiji face Scotland, Canada and Zambia. Sri Lanka will face stiff opposition from England who are seeded third, the Wallabies who will be in action in front of their home crowd. Cook Islands will be the other team in the group C line up.

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