Who woke this pachyderm in slumber?
View(s):By Alvin Sallay
Rugby writer, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
A “Sleeping Giant” has been awoken. This is how Trevor Gregory, vice-president of the Asian Rugby Football Union, described Sri Lanka’s momentous 49-18 win over Kazakhstan which also sealed the host-country victory at the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division One competition last Saturday.
Following emphatic wins over Chinese-Taipei (39-8) and Thailand (45-7) this tournament will prove to be a watershed for the game in Sri Lanka. One day, future rugby historians may well look back to 2013 and point out “that is where it all began”.Gregory, who is also the chairman of the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, already has no doubts about the importance of this triumph. He feels Sri Lanka, a founding member of ARFU, has finally come of age, especially with their stylish coup de grace over the Central Asian heavyweights who for the past few seasons have been a force in the Top Five competition.
The Sri Lanka rugby team leaped to the elite HSBC A5N Top 5 group after an unblemished cmpaign last week. - Pic by AmilaGamage
What was impressive behind Sri Lanka’s layering of icing on the cake was the manner in which Yoshitha Rajapaksa and his men went about their business. It was clinical rugby with a pattern to it. There was none of the “let’s punt it downfield and hope-for-the-best” rugby of the past, but rather there was structure and a game-plan.
Coaches Ravin du Plessis and Ben Gollings will have to take a large share of the credit for this total annihilation of the opposition – scoring 16 tries over three matches is after all very impressive – yet at the same time it couldn’t have happened without everyone, from players to clubs, pulling together.
As Gollings, the former England Sevens captain mentioned: “We always knew Sri Lankans could play rugby, but it was just a matter of bringing it all together.”
This ‘togetherness’ is largely due to all stakeholders uniting behind Asanga Seneviratne. In the past, the local game has been rocked by club politics and factionalism. Individuals with large egos and personal agendas had torn the fabric of the game.
Jarrad Gallagher, the International Rugby Board’s development manager for Asia, was a happy man as he had worked hard in the past to try and get the separate parties to smoke the peace pipe.
“Just see what can be done without politics in the game,” was Gallagher’s pleased reaction to last week’s resurgence.
Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union president Seneviratne has the political clout to help the game take massive strides. But he is also fortunate that during his tenure he has two sons of the First Family playing the game.
Yoshitha and Namal might not have been the best players on the park over the past week, but their mere presence was more than enough to motivate their teammates to take that extra effort, run the extra yard, and make that extra tackle.
The Rajapaksa siblings are inspirational forces. They are also both hardworking players and lead by example. And with their dad being the number one rugby fan in this country, the local game cannot ask for more and be better-placed to take advantage of this situation.
If politics has been the ruination of Sri Lanka rugby in the past, it is time the game used politics to further its image and prospects. And it seems steps are being taken to that effect.
Seneviratne revealed last week, the day is not too far away when Sri Lanka will field foreign- born players. This same subject had stirred nationalistic jingoism among parliamentarians a few years ago when the Sri Lanka Sevens team had tried to field a couple of Fijians. On that occasion, the time was not ripe. It is now, especially when the country has a parliamentarian at the rock face of the game – in the front row.
“It certainly will happen in the future,” says Seneviratne when I asked him if Sri Lanka will follow the rest of the world and field IRB-eligible foreign players – players who have been resident for a minimum of three years.
If the world’s best team, the All Blacks can field players from the Pacific Islands – remember Jonah Lomu who was Tongan-born – why shouldn’t Sri Lanka follow suit?
There is no shame in doing so. Asia’s number one team Japan has for years fielded New Zealanders and Samoans. Hong Kong, by its very nature of being a place which attracts people for employment, has benefited. The Philippines in recent years has made tremendous strides up the ranks of regional rugby thanks to the IRB’s bloodline ruling whereby if your mum or dad, or grandparent, is of local origin, you can play for the country. A lot of the present crop of rugby players in the Philippines has Filipino mums and Australian or British dads.
The only top country in Asia which has resisted using foreign nationals has been South Korea. And they struggle, finding it harder to stay at the top.
If Sri Lanka can have a ‘spine’ of foreign players in the team – a front-rower, preferably a loosehead prop or hooker, a good ball-carrying No.8, one of either a scrumhalf or pivot, and a good midfield player (centre) and fullback – the team will be strengthened massively.
We will need it to be competitive at the top level in Asia. And this is where Sri Lanka must stay, having achieved the target now with the added bonus of playing in a World Cup-qualifying campaign next year.
“With a proud history of more than 100 years, Sri Lanka must be playing at the highest level in Asia. This is important. We cannot be playing in the lower divisions, it means everything to stay at the top,” said Seneviratne.
He is thinking from a corporate point of view. The reasoning: if the game is to continue to attract blue-chip sponsors, then it is a must that the game be exposed to a high-profile.
Next year, the A5N Top Five competition – Sri Lanka was in this company back in 2011 – will feature signature games being shown on worldwide television. What better advertisement for the game than to see playmaker Fazil Marija, or outstanding wing Chamara Dabare run with ball in hand and with ‘Dialog’ emblazoned across their chests – as has been portrayed on the IRB website this past week.
It is also important that having reached the top, that Sri Lanka stays there. For a long-term development program can only be put in place if a team can remain at the top of the tree. Playing at the elite level, as Seneviratne stressed, is of vital importance.
Next year, either the Philippines or the United Arab Emirates will be demoted from this season’s Top Five competition (due to start on April 20). So Sri Lanka will be in the company of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and one of the above in the 2014 Asian World Cup qualifiers.
That in itself is a huge shot-in-the-arm for the game. The exposure of fighting to get into the World Cup will help raise the profile of the game even further in this country.
Last week was a watershed for the game. If everyone continues to pull together, there is no reason why Sri Lanka cannot dream big. We must do so if Asia’s sleeping giant is truly to come out of its slumber.
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