Summa cum laude pass for Lions in revisit to Asia
View(s):Not many people knew that the first place the British and Irish Lions ever played in Asia was in Sri Lanka. Last week, I had to remind a couple of British writers as well as wire agencies scribes that Ceylon had twice been a stopover for the famed touring team either side of World War II.
A lot was made of the Lions visit to Hong Kong last week. Certainly it was the first time that the composite team made up of players from the four Home Unions – England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – was playing against another storied team, the Barbarians, outside Britain.
The two teams had met only once before, in 1977, as part of the Queen’s Silver jubilee celebrations. The Barbarians included such famous luminaries like JPR Williams and Gareth Edwards, but lost 23-14 to the Lions.
The legendary ‘Summa’ Navaratnam
It was the same case last Saturday at Hong Kong Stadium, but this time the result was more emphatic with the Lions running in eight tries in a one-sided 59-8 rout.
In the run-up, the game was wrongly described in certain media as the first-time the Lions were on show in Asia. That was wrong. They stopped over on their way back from New Zealand and Australia in 1930 and 1950.
Those were the days when life was enjoyed at a more leisurely pace and the steamship journey on the way back home gave the Lions the chance to stop over in Colombo where they played All-Ceylon at the Racecourse ground.
The next time you visit the renovated Racecourse, which by the way has a great ambience and is tailor-made to become a premier rugby venue in Colombo, just imagine the ghosts of Lions’ past taking on a combination of colonial planters and executive staff from British companies at this ground.
The 1930s Ceylon side was basically an All-White team. They lost 45-0. But in 1950, three locals represented Ceylon – Summa Navaratnam, Leslie Ephraims and Clair Roeloffsz. This team lost 44-6, but Summa caught the eye of the visitors.
It is reported that the Lions manager was so impressed by Summa that he paid him a glowing compliment stating that he would be the only player who could have played on the wing for the Lions.
It must have been a massive honour for Summa, once dubbed as the fastest man in Asia, not only to be picked to play for Ceylon, but then to distinguish himself on the field.
The chance to be in the limelight comes to very few people. Hong Kong too had a player, sevens captain and 15-a-side winger Rowan Varty, who was invited by the Barbarians to play for them. But unlike Summa, he never got the chance to prove himself.
Varty was the first Hong Kong player to be given this honour and he made his first appearance in the famous black and white hooped shirt of the Barbarians at Twickenham a fortnight ago.
The Barbarians were scheduled to play two games this year, one against England and the other against the Lions in Hong Kong. Most people expected Varty to be picked for the Hong Kong game as this would stir local interest.
He came on for 18 minutes in the second-half against England and did not disgrace himself with Barbarians coach Dai Young saying “Rowan fitted in with the rest”.
So it came as a massive shock when the Barbarians named their side for the Lions to find that Varty had been excluded from the 23-man squad, not even making it on to the replacement bench.
The Barbarians management justified this decision saying that despite Varty’s promise, they had to go with their best side as they wanted to make up for a poor performance against England where they lost 40-12.
Varty had to make way for former England captain Mike Tindall. But his omission created such a big stir that the Barbarians immediately did a turnaround and a couple of hours after naming their final selection, backtracked and said Varty had been put on standby for Tindall who had picked up a groin strain and would have to pass a fitness test.Sadly, on match day, it was decided that Tindall would play after all. The Barbarians had lost a great opportunity to spread the message -which was supposed to be the original intention when they picked a local player to appear in front of his home crowd. The failure to see the bigger picture is sometimes a blight which hits many people who occupy the seats of power. The fact that the Barbarians couldn’t see the benefits of giving Varty a run and took the more insular and selfish approach that being competitive was what mattered backfired in the end.
They got hammered by the Lions. The focus of this game was more about the Lions taking its first step before going to Australia than about the Barbarians. At the end of the day, it mattered little as to who their opponents were, what mattered was how they performed.
Whether Tindall played or not wasn’t significant. What mattered was giving Varty the chance to run out. His presence would have inspired a whole generation of youngsters at Hong Kong Stadium who would have felt ‘I want to be like Varty, and one day represent Hong Kong’.
Just the way Summa’s presence that day at the Racecourse pitch in 1950 might have inspired many other Sri Lankans to play rugby.
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