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Rugby heading downfield
By Vimal Perera
It seemed all roads lead to Havelock Park as Havelock's took on Kandy Sports club on the 7th of May .One saw a larger than usual crowd flocking to the park club grounds. As I got to the grounds I thought to myself that the resurgence of the game is near and crowds will gather to parks to witness rugby, once again.

Disappointment in expectation was written on their faces as crowds began to leave the grounds 20 minutes before the end. It was not that the drubbing the park club received from Kandy but that game lacked purpose and did not provide entertainment as expected On the day following the CR & FC drowned the Police Sports Club by 51 points to 3 at Longden Place. Another one sided game where the fans would have been disappointed. The sides seem ill balanced despite the hue and cry made not to play foreigners, as the not so affluent clubs cannot afford. It now seems that despite the absence of expatriate players clubs are unable to field matching teams. The hierarchy of the union must now put on their thinking caps on to find ways and means of helping out the clubs to stay even. That is where a prudent development plan needed to be in the short run. This may include the helping of clubs in the league to stay alive. That is with the Asiad to be played in 2006 and with less likelihood of reaching the top level in Asian rugby we must have a plan and a focal point. This is absolutely necessary as China is now moving ahead having beaten Chinese Taipei in the recently played World Cup Qualifying Asian circuit match.

Development has taken place so seem to be the thinking of some as the Sri Lankan Women's team brought home the bowl from the Asian Women's Sevens Rugby Tournament played recently in Singapore. Well done we now have a starting point, as we know where we stand. The world cup women's qualifying matches for the Asian region is to be played in Thailand in the first week of June. Four countries taking part are Kazakastahn, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. What happened to the bowl winning Sri Lankan side? Sri Lanka was one of eight teams participating in the Asian women's rugby seven a side. Four teams were selected for the Cup championship. Two for the plate championship and two for the Bowl championship. Sri Lanka won the bowl and effectively is seventh in ranking out of eight teams. To get to the world cup-qualifying round you should have been in the first four. Now that we know where we are we must benchmark to be in the first four than be happy and complacent after winning the bowl, which in reality is seventh out of eight.

The schools under 19 sevens was worked out on the 7th and 8thof May at CR and FC and Havelock Park. Kingwood College Kandy beat Trinity in the Finals by 43 points to 19 in the Cup Championship while Dharmaraja College Kandy won the Plate and Carey College the Bowl. The dominance of Kandy schools was evident. Yet we find only one Club playing Rugby at the top division ,in the Hill capital. Another thought to be considered by those who are in charge of development. 62 points scored in twenty minutes of play in the final provided entertainment to the few spectators present. The matches in the tournament got under way with balls being provided by the playing teams. There being no spare balls or ball pickers contributed to the slowing down of the game each time the ball was kicked out of the playing enclosure. While the schoolmasters have done well in this tournament they need more expert / technical and financial support to make this game a continuous flow as sevens is meant to be.

An issue the schools heads and should consider seriously is the intimidating and violence that was directed at a section of the spectators. The ungentlemanly behaviour and this one incident almost marred two days of good work.

The followers from a team from Kandy, mainly schoolboys and parents, kept their side encouraged with loud cheering. I suppose the thought of a team who were once "glory boys" of rugby, showing signs of come back buoyed them into loud cheering . The Colombo school supporters then converged behind the cheering Kandy supporters and unnecessarily tormented the Kandy crowd and almost physically intimated them to silence.

We have to be reminded "rugby is valued as a sport for men and women, boys and girls it builds understanding co-operation and respect for fellow athletes" The bad display set by the Colombo school is not in the interest or values of the game rugby. Parents and mostly schoolboy supporters faced physical threat they least expected. Before history of violence repeats school heads must plan to eliminate such incidents as the school season begins and may be even play without spectators if repeated acts are noticed. This is not the first time old boy.

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