Rugby is a physical yet exciting game when played with the skill the sport demands. It is one of the most entertaining sports where players battle it out with an oval shaped football that is not easy to handle. Rugby requires skills and qualities to play the game, to play to enjoy and be an exciting sport. Important skills for playing the game are catching, running, passing, evading and tackling.
Catching is the foremost and the most important skill required to play the game. Good catch means having control of the ball, which in turn means more score. Running and carrying the ball needs lot of practice. To cap it all it is not easy to understand the complicated laws and the awkward bounce of the ball. The laws that allow players to leap or grab an opponent who catches the ball, simply to obstruct him from reaching the opponent's goal line looks equally rough. To some this game may be amusing but rugby fanatics would go to great lengths to watch their favorite team play.
The lover or, if you like to call him, the fanatic was looking forward to the start of the school rugby season. Meanwhile what was happening around the fringes of the rugby circus was most amusing. Much more amusing than how the game is seen by somebody who has yet to learn how exciting the game is. The comic happenings and statements one reads about those who want to control the game in this country.
Much more complicated than the laws of the game is the way the words of the constitution that govern rugby in Sri Lanka are interpreted. If that is funny then what was being complained and questioned by the long arm of the law is a hilarious side dish to the fan who wants to see and enjoy rugby. Let us wait till the end of the week to see whether there is any hope after the continuation of the AGM. Let us wait and see whose stories the IRB will buy, or will they not buy.
 Amidst the clowning acts the issues surfaced on the uncertainty of the eagerly awaited schools season.
What action was taken to restrain the schools section conducting the games because they have not included Science College among the top teams? Added to this worry was the information that Dharmaraja College was challenging the inaction on a complaint they had made about the eligibility of a player of Isipathana College. Isipathana is vehement in denying any wrong doing on their part as the Ministry of Education has ruled favourably for the student in question to be in school.
What does all this say? Down the line it is not about the game being won on superior skill. Not because you had a good catch and control the oval ball because you knew how to catch; but because you did not play by the rules and or had a technical point or the clout to make your winning claim stronger.
Into this circus steps in the Minister of Education whose ruling appears to be more like the story of “Mahdenamuththa”. There is no solution to the problems that prop up every year. The simple solution is to add two more teams.
There is no action on the causes of the problem which will continue and rise again another day. The Minister could have taken action to determine which of the two teams should have been uploaded. He could have initiated action to decide and pronounce whether the claim of Dharmaraja College had any truth. That then would have deterred the last minute pressure that has marred school rugby,
The start to the tournament will probably be postponed to organize a fresh draw or format. Maybe it will require playing more than a match a week exposing the young schoolboy to the risk of injury.
Probably one of these days a Ministerial type may uphold the claim on a protest and overrule the decision of the referee.
The Principal of Kingswood has offered to step down to group B and allow Science to be in the A Division among ten teams. A course of action that is laudable as it is more in line of the spirit of the game of rugby.
This may be a move that may be criticized by some of the ardent old boy supporters. By his action he has shown a way and given a valuable example to the young schoolboy building character through sport. May be we could have another school or two stepping down so that others who cry can be accommodated. Better still if the Schools decide to revert to playing friendly games as they called it then.
The equation is getting complicated by the day and it looks like more than one has jumped out of the “cuckoo’s nest”. This time around they arouse laughter as they have joined the circus as clowns.
Vimal Perera is a former
Rugby Referee, coach and
Accredited Referees
Evaluator IRB |
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