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The Asian Sevens Series is set to get underway this weekend with the first leg taking place in Shanghai.

Sanctioned by the International Rugby Board, the two-day event is the first stop in the newly established IRB Asian Rugby Sevens Series, with national teams from all over the continent competing, including the Chinese Mainland, Japan, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Singapore.

The Series is part of the IRB’s ongoing plan to develop rugby in Asia and off the field a bit of a festival atmosphere will prevail before the Series heads onto the Philippines, Brunei, Borneo, Iran and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, the last nation to host one of the six legs in the Asian Series at the Carlton Sri Lanka Sevens in November have been training in preparation for the Shanghai tournament with a 27 member squad.

The squad have been in training under the watchful eyes of head coach Ronnie Ibrahim who is set to announce a final 12 players ahead of the weekend with the advice of former Sri Lanka winger and team manager Imithie Marikar.

The Sri Lanka rugby sevens pool released by the Secretary of the Interim Committee of the SLRFU Kiran Atapattu is as follows:

Ravi Jayasuriya, Suranga Pushpakumara, Samantha Lakshan, Niranjan Wickremaratne, Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Dilip Methruwan (all from Navy) Ashen Karthelis, Dushanth Lewke, Kasun de Silva, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Lasintha de Costa, Dinesh Kumara (all from CR and FC), Sameera Silva, Prasad Chathuranga, Dilip Selvam, Chamara Vithanage (all from Kandy SC), Indika Udayakumara, Sharo Fernando and Sajith Bandara (all from CH and FC), Chanaka Chandimal and Suranga Arunashantha (both from Air Force), Asanka Perera and Saliya Handapangoda (both from Army), Akmal Hassan and Priyantha Ekanayake (both from Police), Dilan de Zoysa (Havelocks) and Lakmal Fernando (old Zahirians).

Schedule for the Asian Rugby Sevens Series 2009:
Shanghai Sevens, China, September 12-13
Subic Sevens, Philippines, October 10-11
Brunei Sevens, October 24-25
Borneo Sevens, Kota Kinabalu, October 31 - November 1
Kish Island Sevens, Iran, November 20-22
Sri Lanka Sevens, November 28-29.