TWO foreign schools will compete in the schools category of the HSBC-Combined Old Boys Rugby Association (COBRA) 10s tournament at the Kelana Jaya Stadium on Sept 9-11.

They are the Singapore’s Saint Andrew’s School and England’s Broadwater Boarding School. They will join another five state teams in the three-day competition, the 36th in the series.

“These are the first foreign teams competing in the competition and we hope it will do much for the development of the sport,” said Cobra president Datuk Krishnan Tan at the Cobra clubhouse yesterday.

At the recent Power NS Royal Sevens at the Georgian Green in Seremban, another foreign school team, Stellen Bosch University from South Africa were the Milo Cup champions beating Bandar Penawar Sports School 12-0.

Except Johor, 11 states will compete for the four spots available to teams from West Malaysia at the Jalan Utara rugby grounds on Saturday.

For the fifth Malaysian entry Sabah will play Sarawak.

Organisers are still awaiting confirmation from a Thai school as to whether they are competing.

“If the Thais cannot make it, we will field another Malaysian side,” added Krishnan.

In last year’s schools category, Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) were champions.

Also at the clubhouse yesterday, Cobra received a sponsorship cheque for RM100,000 from Carlsberg for the tournament.

Defending champions Marist St Joseph from Samoa and 13 other top foreign clubs from nine countries have confirmed participation in this year’s tournament.

The teams are Mendoza Rugby Association from Argentina, Australia Rugby Legends, Red Rock Rugby Club from Fiji, New Zealand’s Ponsonby Rugby Club, Oriental Rongotai Rugby Club and Northern Region Maori Rugby.

South Africa’s Eldoronians Rugby Club, Northlink Country Rugby and Tuks Rugby Club and United Kingdom’s Penguins International RFC and British Army Rugby Union will also be competing.

Besides Malaysia’s Cobra and NS Wanderers Rugby Club, Taiwan’s Chinese Taipei Rugby Football Union and Thailand’s Thai Barbarians are among the Asian participants.

Last year Cobra was out of the Cup category after losing to Ponsonby in the quarter-finals.

The world’s first 10s tournament, which was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1967, was won by the Royal Selangor Club.

Thirty-six championships later, teams are participating for a prize money of US$15,000.

The runners-up will win US$10,000 and the two losing semi-finalists each win US$2,500.