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Kiwi legend Garratt Williamson to boost local referees’ society
The Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union in their quest to reach great heights and run under the watchful eyes of its President Asanga Seneviratne is making every endeavour to uplift the sport from all angles.
For starters the depleted and current sorry state of rugby referees affairs is about to get a shot in the arm as New Zealander Garratt Williamson one of his nation’s top of five referees is in the island to help out the Referees Society firstly due to the shortage of fit and competent local referees to officiate games in the current ‘A’ Division inter club tournament. Secondly his services are being sort out to re-structure the existing Rugby Referees Society.
“It is mandatory that everyone finds a way to pull together and pledge their support for the greater good of the sport,” believes Williamson - Pic by Anuradha Bandara
The last eight weeks has seen an equal number of foreign referees been flown in to keep the game afloat at some considerable cost and perhaps Wiiliamson’s experience and knowledge in this masterful art of refereeing could help stem the issues the Ref’s Society is faced with at present.
Wiiliamson spoke to the Sunday Times and expressed his desire to stay back and further help Chula Dharmadasa and his Interim Committee to help in re-structuring the existing Rugby Referees Society as at present Williamson is also involved in helping design “Referee coaching and Referee Training” material back in New Zealand.
A naturally born and talented rugby referee, Williamson commenced his referring career at the tender age of fifteen and eventually went on to reach greater heights in a fledging career officiating games such as Japan Vs Fiji and also Japan Vs Samoa in the fifteen a side version. Williamson a decorated referee gained the world’s respect wherever he has officiated.
The friendly and unassuming tall Kiwi lad has not only the experience and flair in this masterful art, but openly shared his views on the current situation based on his experience over the two weeks he has spent closely with the SLRFU. Williamson during his stay officiated games such as Kandy versus CR in Kandy last weekend and Havelocks versus Navy yesterday.
“Sri Lankans are passionate about the game of rugby and I was enthralled to see the Nittawela Stadium packed to capacity for the domestic game played between Kandy and CR last weekend. Most understand this sport very well and the standard is much higher than I expected,” opened Williamson in his conversation.
“One area that I observed is that everyone as much as they are brilliant in what they do, for some strange reason are pulling in different directions. It is mandatory that everyone finds a way to pull together and pledge their support for the greater good of the sport. In situations like this it becomes quite a common factor that people will generally point fingers at each other when things are not going according to plan” continued Williamson.
“I have watched video footage of local games and also observed the skillful manner in which some of the local referees are officiating matches” said Wiiliamson.
“As in any business it is vital that even the Referees’ Society do have its own vision, mission, strategy and a plan with systems and processors in place. Once you do have the basics right it is a matter of further training those you have and help take the competent ones to a higher tier. You could also create opportunities and look at avenues to encourage school boys and club players to take up to refereeing and then you could start to build on your resource pool thereafter” advised the New Zealander.
“At present the structure for referees in New Zealand and for that matter Australia, South Africa and England is very professionally handled and run and perhaps the SLRFU could follow similar model that they use” continued Wiiliamson.
Lasitha Gunaratne the Chairman Tournament Committee and Vice President of the SLRFU when contacted commented “we are fortunate to gain the services of Williamson and we are extremely happy that he accepted our invitation to come down. As administrators of the SLRFU it is our duty to run the affairs smoothly and refereeing is a key cog in our wheel. Sometimes it is not fair to blame referees when they make mistakes and isolate them because at the end of the day they are critically important for the sport and the game suffers eventually”.