Is there a way to use the a!applyComponents() for an interface with multiple sec

I think you need to provide a bit more detail on the use case but in answer to your question, yes.

forum.appian.com/.../SAIL_Recipes.html

Say you have an interface rule!abc(ri!z) defined as { a!sectionLayout(), a!sectionLayout()} and in a separate interface call a!applyComponents(rule!abc, local!list)

Nick, yes that's possible. As far as I know, a!applyComponents() can be used to return an array of any type of SAIL component. The one issue you might hit is where the rule you're calling with a!applyComponents() returns an array of components - in that case, you may need to wrap your call of a!applyComponents() in a call of fn!reduce() that uses fn!append, in order to join the arrays together into one larger array.