Schools’ rugby quagmire – need a permanent solution

Sports

The schools rugby tournament got under way on the 24th after the uncertainty that prevailed. The tournament will be managed by the SLRFU with the support of the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Sports.

School rugby has been given this opportunity with President Rajapakse showing an interest to ensure that the game will stay alive. That is the good side of life in rugby for the schools who were unaware of the future of the boys who have been practicing hard. The bad side is the reflection on those who have been entrusted to run school rugby. Their inability to manage the conflict has made it necessary for the number one citizen of the country to get involved. This casts serious doubts on the future of the game in Sri Lanka unless there is a lesson learnt.

It was also good news that the sleeping giant, the Western Province Council got activated to offer their services to facilitate school rugby for 2009. In fact it was to a meeting organized by the WPRFU that burly Lasitha Gunaratne -- CEO of SLRFU who had to walk in to announce the decision of the SLRFU to get involved.

Last schools season also had its ups and downs, but not so turbulent.

For the time being the Schools tournament will get off the ground for 2009. The question however is what about next year and the year after. Don’t say it is too early to look at. What should happen is to form a working group to iron out issues and to propose the way forward. This should also have a formal agreement between the administration and the schools that issues are sorted out with a process in place. There should be a process that has to be exhausted before one takes the ultimate action and also ensure that the decisions are taken fairly and just not seem to be fair.

Recently I was told that what is being written on the schools issue identifies the problem but does not point the finger to those who are responsible. My answer was to ask whether all schools are represented in the schools society. The answer being yes the issue to me is what they are doing when what is done is not correct. Why do you expect somebody else to bell the cat when those who now condemn the schools society have a representative closer to the cat that has to be belled? Most would prefer to keep silent than to rock the boat.

It is no little wonder that we get into a mess in not being able to run things which should have simple solutions; there is no need for rocket science. But people prefer not to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. The reason being that you don’t want to make enemies of all those who profit by the old order, while those who want change will prefer to do nothing arising partly from fear of their adversaries, and partly from the disbelief of mankind. Niccolo Machiavelli, 1532AD.

In the first paragraph I said about the lack of people who can manage which is a predominant issue with the game. The blame for these lies in those who managed in the past. Yet, often people mention of the past as glories as we talk of the game. If they had vision they would have made sure there is a line of succession. . Take the case of coaches and we have great names mentioned at all times. Most of the time by they are complimented on how well they did.

This happens because there is little or no ability to interpret intelligently what we see as we look at what is obvious. The reason for this is because we are gifted to see but not comprehend. If this is not so why is it that we have five foreign coaches in the country handling four clubs and one school? Obviously it is because we don’t have people to do the job.

I believe it is because those who we fondly remember have not done enough to see that we have subordinates who can take over. That is development which can best be described by using another word. This is not only true of coaches but of many posts who people believe is not manned by capable people. This I believe is the result of not looking ahead and thus not training others to take your place. Yet we keep on talking about the good old times. I remember what happened in a multinational company some time back when a group of supervisors protested about not being promoted as managers despite their long service. The answer they received stuck them as though it was thunder and lightening. “The question is if we promote you who will take your place? There is nobody within as you have trained none. You will continue to do the work of the supervisor having a tag manager. Therefore I will consider your promotions when I see there is somebody trained to take your place.”

Take the fiasco of the national team replacement in the recent matches played in Dubai. The coach wanted number 6 out and the wearer of the number jersey 6 was taken off.

Why did this happen? Possibly this is because we don’t follow the International way of numbering. That is starting from left to right. Then the front row is 1 ,2 and 3 with the two locks being 4 and 5 and the left flanker 6 and right flanker being 7. The coach refers to 6 being the flanker on the left and you take out the right flanker wearing number 6 jersey. Possibly I can talk another day on more incidents that come to mind as we look at how much we have developed.

= Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB

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