U-18 Rugby: Comedy of errors by SLSRFA forces SLRFU to ban tournament

Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) came under heavy criticism when its Secretary had not done the paperwork on schedule to conduct an Inter-School Under-18 Division II Sevens Tournament at Ananda College ground in Kotte, which eventually was never kicked off. 

The tournament, supposed to begin on Friday (21) and end on Sunday (23), could not make a start after the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) decided not to grant permission and bar its referees from officiating. 

School officials and parents of players blame the SLSRFA, for failing to obtain the green light from SLRFU on time, slaying the valuable time of schoolboys, who will be sitting for their G.C.E. O/L examination in December. 

Adding more chaos, the SLSRFA also had not obtained the permission from the Ministry of Education, the higher authority of schools' activities, to run the three-day tournament, which has many grey areas according to Nazim Mohamed, the Secretary of SLRFU.

"The Secretary of SLSRFA incompetent to hold this position in my opinion, and he sends the SLRFU a letter with tournament rules asking for permission in the night of Thursday, barely hours before the event. The SLRFU also got the insight that the tournament had not received the Ministry of Education approval. The letter sent by the SLSRFA Secretary did not have a copy of the Ministry approval. After studying the tournament rules more confusions arose, so we decided not to grant the event a go and advised the Referees' Society not to attend," Mohamed stated. 

The document sent by the SLSRFA Secretary to the SLRFU with the tournament rules attached, raises concerns as pointed out by Mohamed, as it states of a Schools Under-18 Division II 10-a-side tournament, not a Seven-a-side tournament.

"The tournament rule says that it's a 10-a-side championship but has included rules of a 7-a-side championship. This is confusing, and when we called the SLSRFA Secretary to clear the matter out, he is not responding. The letter was sent to the SLRFU at around 8.30pm on Thursday whilst the tournament was to kick off the following day morning," he explained. 

Of late, the SLSRFA has come under heavy condemnation by many for their shortsightedness of conduct. 

Many in the Rugby fraternity argue that the incumbent Secretary of SLSRFA runs the show just to complete the scheduled tournament calendar, not considering the academic commitments of the school-goers.

"The SLSRFA has a representation seat at SLRFU Council Meetings, but they never show up. More over there should be a representative from SLRFU at their sittings, but they never invite or inform us. This is just an indication of the negligence or unprofessional conduct of the Schools Section, that they are not ready to work in cohesion with the parent body," Mohamed lashed. 

A total of 24 teams were to take part in the tournament but according to an insider only 15 teams have turned up on Friday (21). 

A source close to SLSRFA revealing matters said that the confusion about the tournament rules was a typo error, where the document for the called off tournament was drafted upon copying a document earlier prepared for a Seven-a-side competition. 

Last month the SLRFU stated that it intends of regulating the level of competitions and adding quality to the game at a Council Meeting. 

Accordingly organisers of tournaments need to seek SLRFU approval before making other arrangements if they are willing to move on with a governing body sanctioned competition.

Mohamed also pointed out that the SLSRFA does not update the progress of the national age group teams, which comes under their own purview. 

The High Performance Director of SLRFU, Inthie Marikkar too had blamed the Schools Section for neglecting preparation of the Sri Lanka side for the Asian Under-19 Championship to be held in December in Malaysia.  

Adding salt to the wound it is reliably learned that the Ministry of Education has sent the SLSRFA a strong-worded letter calling in an inquiry on the incident. 

The letter signed by Sunil Jayaweera, the Special Consultant for Ministry of Sports, accuses the SLSRFA of not promptly informing the authority of a Under-18 Division II Rugby Championship before calling entries and not specifying of correct dates and a venue. 

The present situation looks unhealthy for the SLSRFA and School Rugby, which provides the most followed League Championship in the country.