Young ruggerites jump the hurdle
After much of an uproar and rift among top officials of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU), Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) and the Ministry of Sports, whose Director General is the present Competent Authority of local rugby affairs, a squad of 25 ruggerites under the leadership of Omalka Gunaratne left for Singapore for the Junior Rugby Asiad.
The goal is none other than to win the four-nation competition, in the region, and reach the World stage after a lapse of 15 years.
Third-row-forward Gunaratne, last year’s captain of Isipathana College, now turning out for Navy Sports Club, and his team may have had very less time to gel as a unit. Initially they were refused to release as much as 25 players from a pool of 35. But they are now a determined lot according to the Colin Denish, who plays second fiddle to Head Coach Sanath Martis.
“The boys are well focused and are in great shape psychologically. Our main objective is to beat top guns Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei, to whom we have been losing regularly at this level. Somewhere down the line we must be able to beat them both and change the tradition. I guess with this young lot there’s no better chance than this time. We beat them both and that means our focus is to win the championship,” Denish told the Sunday Times.
The Sri Lanka Youths will have an opportunity to test out where they stand when they take on hosts Singapore today. But the real test will be up next Wednesday and Saturday, where the Junior Tuskers are set to meet the teams they would see the better of. The meeting with Hong Kong will be midweek while the weekend will be reserved for Chinese Taipei when the tournament comes to an end.
If the Sri Lanka Under-20 rugby unit could succeed them all within the next seven days, they will be well set to win a berth at the Junior World Rugby Trophy which will be held in April 2016 in Harare, Zimbabwe. The only occasion when Sri Lanka reached the global stage was in 2001, when they qualified for the Junior World Rugby Trophy under Jivan Gunathilake. Sri Lanka managed to beat Belgium but lost to USA, Germany and Czech Republic in Chile in the landmark achievement of the history of Sri Lanka Rugby.
Though the ambition of the team and the coaches are such, Head Coach Martis and his assistant Denish had to battle the odds which were beyond their reach. The major drawback they had was when Sri Lanka’s rugby hierarchy did very little or simply nothing to get the players, attached to local clubs competing in the ongoing Dialog Division ‘A’ Inter-Club League Championship, released for national duty. It was reported that an unnamed official of the SLRFU played a major role behind the curtain to get the clubs not to release its players named for the Junior Asiad, mainly for petty reasons. He had also persuaded K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, the Director General of the Ministry of Sports, also the Competent Authority of Rugby, providing wrong information.
This pushed Martis to forward his resignation weeks before the tournament while his assistant was ready to follow the path. However after an emergency meeting between Ruwanchandra and Martis, all problems were solved within a matter of hours. The SLSRFA, headed by Ranjith Chandrasekera, who does the groundwork to form a Sri Lanka Junior team, could not get the amount of support from the SLRFU as anticipated. These setbacks only made most of the players unavailable hampering the preparation process leaving only just above a week available to do the final touches, after the initial squad was picked in August.
In spite of all these Gunaratne, his deputy Kevin Dixon and the rest of the 23 players are determined in taking the challenge positively and hopping into a plane to fly off to Zimbabwe in four months. After weeks of deliberation and delay the final squad of 25 was picked by the selection committee headed by Michael Jayasekera. The cream of players who excelled are in the side inclusive of seven skippers with Gunaratne, from last year’s School Rugby season.
The Sri Lanka Juniors will miss Royal College playmaker Supun Warnakulasuriya, who was ruled out after an injury caused to his knee at a practice game with Police Sports Club. Along with Warnakulasuriya, Gayal Jayasinghe of Royal, Hirantha Manamendra of Dharmaraja, Deshan Pethiyagoda of Wesley and Udara Anjana of St. Peter’s are placed as stand bys.
The final squad includes Charana Chamikara of St. Joseph, Ayesha Maduranga of Royal, Lasindu Ishan of Science and Nikila Gunadeera of Royal as props. Nishal Deshatha of Isipathana as hooker. Matheesha Sarathchandra of Isipathana, Umesh Madhushan of Royal, Isuru Rangala of Trinity and Mithila Perera of Wesley as locks and as third-row-forwards Shawket Lahir of Royal, Taariq Saleh of St. Joseph’s, skipper Omalka Gunaratne of Isipathana, Rahul Karunathilaka of Trinity and Chathura Dilshan of Isipathana.
Isuru Kongahawatte of Isipathana or Vimukhti Rahula of St. Joseph’s will man the scrum half’s slot. Fly half will be Rehan Silva of Isipathana with Nishon Perera and Kevin Dixon of St. Peter’s and Bhanuka Gamage of Royal taking in the position of centres. The two wingers’ slots and the full back berth will be filled by Reeza Raffaideen of Kingswood, Asitha Punchihewa of Isipathana, Sajith Roshan of Science, Buddima Piyaratne of D.S. Senanayake and Chamika Kusal of Wesley. The officials include Sanath Martis as Head Coach, Colin Denish as Assistant Coach, Buddhika Kulathunga as Manager, Denzil Darling as Master-in-Charge and A.B. Musheen as Physio.