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The second rugby hurdle
By Rangi Akbar
Never has there been so much interest in a rugby game since the 1960s when teams such as England led by Budge Rogers, Paris Universities, London Welsh, the Bosuns and London Welsh visited Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan teams received the thrashing of their lives in these games except at the hands of the Paris Universities.

Despite these defeats the interest never waned. Then the turning point arrived when the. Paris Universities brought a powerful team and inflicted a crushing blow on the SLRFU President’s team. In retaliation the SLRFU team trained and trained and when the Paris Universities came again to our shores, the SLRFU XV pulled off a bruising win at Longden Place. Two players who played their hearts out at that encounter were Viper Guneratne and the former SLRFU President Mohan Balasuriya. Bloodied but unbowed the SLRFU XV limped out winners.

Now the focus is on the Sri Lanka vs Singapore Asia Zone world qualifier to be played at Longden Place on June 18. All reports reaching us from Singapore indicate that the Singaporeans are as keen as mustard to win this game and be in the race for the World Cup to be held in Paris in 2007. Even if Singapore cannot be amongst the leading teams in the world, their intention is trying to be amongst them.

One report even said that the Singapore side had even video taped Sri Lanka’s match against Thailand and were looking for chinks in Sri Lanka’s armour. Chinks there are many. One such defect is our three-quarters inability to pass the ball quickly. Singapore made a good start defeating Thailand in their first match. Despite a steady drizzle Singapore swept through to a 47-27 victory and are now looking forward to their match against Sri Lanka. Singapore coach Matt Ryan is reported to have said that they have to watch the video of the Sri Lanka vs Thailand game carefully and come up with a new game plan.
Singapore is reported to have a good three-quarter line and a set of forwards to match. The winner will top Group A and take on the winner of Group B, which is most likely be Kazakhstan and eventually be promoted to Division Two.

Sri Lanka under coach George Simpkin has been training dedicatedly throughout the past fortnight. But unfortunately the sources are limited. A lot will depend on the boot of Army’s Thushara A. Silva, who put over 18 points in Sri Lanka’s win over Thailand. The nippy fullback is in top form and if he gets the opportunity he neither will nor let the country down.

The team led by Sajith Mallikarachchi does not have a set of forwards to boast about but the outsides are fast and nippy. All rugby fans will be hoping for a Sri Lankan victory and let us hope Malikarachch’s lads will deliver the goods.

Another encouraging factor is that after decade or more of lingering in the doldrums it seems that rugby has taken a turn upwards in recent times. It was encouraging to see teams in the likes of Havlocks and Army registering two good wins over Police and CH and FC respectively while the minnows Navy under the tutelage of Kumar Dias Desinghe giving the local high riders Kandy SC a run for their money in their last outing.

All in all it seems that there is a true revival of the game in Sri Lanka and a win against Singapore would no any harm to their morale.

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