Sri Lanka Men and Women will compete in Pool ‘A’ at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Seven-A-Side Rugby Tournament, which will be held from July 29 to 31 at the Coventry Stadium in Birmingham, England.

The Sri Lanka Men’s Team will be up against the reigning champions New Zealand, England and Samoa while the Women’s Team will play alongside the 2018 Gold Medallists New Zealand, Canada and England.

Meanwhile, Pool ‘B’ of the Men’s Tournament will include Scotland, South Africa, Tonga and the second Asian nation – Malaysia.

Pool ‘C’ will feature the Olympic Champions and Silver Medallists from Gold Coast 2018 Games, Fiji, who are pooled with Canada, Wales and Zambia.

The final Pool ‘D’ in the Men’s Championship includes medal contender Australia as well as Kenya, Uganda and Jamaica.

Pool ‘B’ of the Women’s Tournament includes Australia (runners-up in the inaugural event in 2018), medal hopefuls Fiji (current Olympic Bronze Medallists) as well as Scotland and South Africa.

In fact, Sri Lanka will be the only Asian country to participate in the Women’s Tournament after they qualified from the 2021 Asia Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, held in the United Arab Emirates.

All pool matches of the Men’s and Women’s Tournament will be played on July 29 and 30 while the playoffs and the knock-out stage fixtures for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals will be played on July 31.

Seven-A-Side Rugby was first played in the Commonwealth Games in 1998 with the inclusion of a Men’s competition, in which New Zealand defeated Fiji to take the Gold Medal.

However, the inaugural Women’s Sevens Rugby competition took place in 2018 where New Zealand defeated Australia in the final encounter.