STORY AND PICURES BY – HERBERT PERERA – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF – DISCOVERY SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka took another significant step into the international rugby stage as SC Global Consultancy officially launched the inaugural Asia Pacific Lions Vs Northampton Saints Tour of Sri Lanka 2026 at a media briefing was held at the City of Dreams of Tuesday.
The event unveiled what is set to become one of the biggest rugby spectacles ever staged in Sri Lanka, with English Premiership Champions Northampton Saint set to face the newly established Asia Pacific Lions, an invitational representative team bringing together elite players from across Asia Rugby’s member unions alongside leading Pacific island talent.
The touring saint squad will feature more than 10 players from England Rugby’s wider squad, including Henry Pollock, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell, and Tommy Freeman all of whom were part of the British and Irish Lions squad that toured Australia last year.
The pacific Lions Squad will include international stars such as former Wallabies Captain Will Genia, former Fiji Captain Waisea Nayacalevu, and former Japan International Jamie Henery, who will Captain the inaugural Asia pacific Lions side, alongside several current Super Rugby players.
The headline fixture between the Asia Pacific Lions and Northampton Saints will take place on 28th August, (Friday) with kick-off at 4.30 p.m. at the Racecourse International Stadium in Colombo, bringing together international players, officials, and supporters for what is expected to be a landmark occasion for rugby in Sri Lanka and across Asia.
The brainchild behind the Asia Pacific Lions, Saabir Cader, presented the vision behind the initiative – “ We want to unlock Sri Lanka’s uncapped rugby tourism potential by bringing a world-class sporting event to our island nation. This creates an opportunity for our rugby-crazy fans to witness international superstars playing on home soil while helping us to establish a ‘Barmy Army’ culture for rugby in the years ahead. Great sporting nations are not built by waiting for opportunities. They are built by creating them.
The media briefing also highlighted the comprehensive tour programme, which extends well beyond the feature match. Activities will include community rugby clinics, coach education programmes, youth engagement initiatives,corporate visits, tourism promotions, media engagements, and charity T20 cricket match featuring Asia Pacific Lions and Northampton Saints rugby stars taking on a team of Sri Lanka Cricket Legends including Aravinda De Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vass, and other cricketing stars in action. This Cricketing Legendary Match will be played on 23rd of August at Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) under lights commencing at 7.30 p.m.
Speaking at the media conference the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Sunil Kumara Gamage said, this memorable event will promote Tourism Promotion hub in our country and we should organize this type of tournaments to get international players to come and play in our beautiful country and it will increase our economy. He also stressed that it will give good chance to our sports men and women and also sports loving people of out county. Though I am not a rugby player but I like to watch rugby and as the minister of sports I will give my fullest support to promote rugby in Sri Lanka and I will approve payment to our rugby players to promote our rugby in to the highest level and I wish our players and it will be a rugby destination of Sri Lanka in the years to come.
Mr. Saabir Cader, Founder and the Director of Global Consultancy’s Asia Pacific Lions said, Like our country is famous in cricket we can promote rugby by getting international player like this and promote rugby to become one of our top games in Sri Lanka. He invites all the rugby loving spectators come and watch both games on 23rd August the T20 match will be playing with our cricketing legends of Sri Lanka at the CCC at 7.30 p.m. and also the Asia Pacific Lions vs Northampton Saints Rugby match will be played at Race Course International Stadium on 28th August commencing at 4.30 p.m.onwards.
