An exciting new competition for schools rugby was launched in Pretoria today when internet service provider @lantic announced a national sevens rugby series for schools to be held from August 4th to October 27th, 2007. The series will consist of 10 tournaments around the country and has already received the blessing of the South African School's Information meeting and national sevens coach, Paul Treu.

Schools from regions in Pretoria, Vereeniging, Upington, Durban, Middelburg, Polokwane, Klerksdorp, Bloemfontein, George and Paarl will host tournaments, with between 16 and 24 schools from that region participating. In all, over 200 schools will be part of this unique new concept in schools rugby.

As an added incentive, a Player of the Tournament will be selected at every tournament. These 10 players will be invited by Treu to the Springbok 7’s training camp in preparation for the first two international sevens tournaments in Dubai and George in late November and early December 2007.

These 10 players will also make up the @lantic Invitation Team that will travel to Dubai to play against local junior teams from the Arabian Gulf at the IRB Dubai Sevens tournament at the end of November. Their costs will be covered by @lantic.

According to Dederick Venter, Marketing Director of @lantic, his company has been working closely with sports promotor, Willem Strauss, in developing this series.

“@lantic’s national footprint makes the sponsorship a natural fit and a natural progression from @lantic’s previous involvement with the Pumas Currie Cup team, as well as the current rugby development partnership with the SA Rugby Legends. Most of the money generated by rugby goes towards the professional code of the game which caters for less than 1% of the players. @lantic would like to focus on the breeding ground of future Springboks which is our current u.19 schools players,” Venter said.

“We believe that 7’s is the ideal platform for skills development in young players. Proof of this is the performance of players like Brent Russell, Stefan Basson and Phillip Burger, to name but a few. Sevens rugby has never received the same attention in South Africa as it’s 15 man counterpart and we believe we can assist in making South Africa the top 7’s country in the world.”

South African national sevens coach Treu complimented the initiative by @lantic & Strauss: “I see this as an exciting pilot project that can lead to good things. Sevens rugby at school level needed something like this and I look forward to see the stars of the future emerging during the series.

Sport promoter, Willem Strauss, says that the tournament will contribute towards enhancing the skills levels of players at school level, as well as discovering new talent. "The advantage of 7's rugby is that the small rural district schools can compete against the super rugby schools from the cities."

According to Lindsay Mould, chairman of SA School's Rugby, this is a fantastic initiative which should assist Paul Treu as national sevens coach in identifying talent for future Springbok sevens teams as well as offering young players, who are the future of South African rugby, additional exposure and development opportunities.

The schedule for the series is:

August 4th: Overkruin (Pretoria); August 18th: HTS Vereeniging (Vereeniging); August 25th: Duineveld (Upington); September 1st: Glenwood (Durban); September 8th: Kanonkop (Middelburg); September 15th: HTS Tom Naude (Polokwane); October 6th: Wesvalia (Klerksdorp); October 13th: Jim Fouche (Bloemfontein); October 20th: Outeniqua (George); October 27th: Paarl Gym (Paarl).