• • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Stumble Upon
  • Furl

The inaugural Abbotsford Sevens tournament will be held this weekend at the Rotary Stadium in Canada attracting a high profile of rugby sevens teams from across the globe.

A Kenya side including a number of internationals who have helped their national sevens side reach sixth in the world rankings by the International Rugby Board, will headline the event along with the West Indies squad, comprised of players from the Caribbean islands, although the balance of the field will be filled out by high profile club teams from the United States and Canada, including the Abbotsford Rugby Football Club.

One of these internationals is Collins Injera, who is participating in the tournament and is sure to draw the crowds in with his lightning speed which saw him score 42 tries in this year’s IRB Sevens World Series, the most by any player, and 210 points, the second highest behind Ben Gollings of England.

It's won't be the first time he has thrilled the crowds outside the IRB circuit, as he was in electric form at the Safari Sevens on home soil in June.

With other major teams such as IRB World Series winners South Africa, taking part in the 2009 World Games, this will be a great work out for all of the Kenyan squad.

As for the West Indies, they have gone from strength to strength since their team first participated in the IRB Sevens World Series in Los Angeles in 2005 and more recently at this years Hong Kong Sevens. Head coach Joe Whipple knows the importance of playing in tournaments like this.

“This is the first time that we will have reassembled players in the summer. This is a great start to our development programme this year," he said

"We have chosen to add some young and new talent to the mix of players. This will only increase our depth of players and this will translate into more players gaining exposure to a higher level of sevens.

"They can take this experience back to their individual unions."

“These players will have an opportunity to demonstrate that they deserve to be in the top 12 players in the West Indies. The players we added for this tournament and training camp were all close misses for the Rugby West Indies team at the Hong Kong Sevens World Series in March," added Whipple.

"Players not selected are clearly in the mix for future tournaments. We expect all of the players to come to Canada at an international fitness standard ready to play some great sevens.”

With Sevens being one of the world’s fastest growing sports, many teams and venues have promptly jumped on the bandwagon, and Abbotsford have put themselves down to host what the organisers plan to be an annual event – although the rapid growth and stature of the tournament has surprised even the organisers.

"The City of Abbotsford is excited to host international players from around the world, and we are looking thrilled to have such amazing support for this unique sport and entertainment event." said Doug Okero, a member of the organizing committee.

“If someone had told me five months ago that we’d have 16 teams booked and that we’d be turning teams away, I would have laughed,” admitted Okero.

“What we’ve achieved already, I was expecting to happen in year three of our five-year plan. It’s not supposed to happen this way.”

Okero was born in Kenya and moved to Canada in 2001, and it’s been his dream to bring the Kenyan national team across the Atlantic to help increase the profile of rugby in this country – so it will be interesting to see who he is supporting over the weekend!

The unique event is expected to bring tremendous benefits to the Abbotsford community in terms of revenue and promotion of Sevens. Eleven straight hours of rugby competition will be played out on Saturday and it has potential to become the largest international sport and entertainment tournament of its kind in Canada.