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| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
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Sports |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Stop
trotting excuses SLRFU: Where's our rugby heading?
by Lal Gunasekera Where is Sri Lanka's rugby headed? What direction are we going and what are we trying to achieve? These are a few of the numerous questions that the hierarchy of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) needs to seriously answer. In the 'good old days', particularly in the 1960's upto the early 90's or thereabout, there was spectator interest in this sports, but what is it now? Rugby during these years was very much like music - sweet and lovely to watch, but now its boring. The players have lost the art of dummies, scissors, side step and cross-kicks - which were all performed with opponents breathing down the necks of players in the glory years. What do one witness now? Plenty of 'break downs' with players lacking in the basics. Not qualified A complete revamping of the entire system is what is needed - not professionals players. The SLRFU must get down foreign coaches and make them available to clubs and even schools. The cradle of rugby is the schools and top priority must be given for the school coaches to be trained properly. These days, certain school coaches are not qualified and what is the result? when players from these schools come for club practices, they do not know their basics and the club coaches just waste time by teaching them the basics instead of tactical play. The SLRFU hierarchy must get the former top administrators together, have a discussion and find out what could be done to resurrect the game again and make it interesting to watch and then you will find the spectators getting interested again. What happened this year? Sri Lanka just managed to beat China (a country that took to this sport only a few years back) by a mere penalty (9-3) and that too in Colombo, in an IRB World Cup qualifying game. Then, China, went on to smash Kazakhastan 57-13, but Sri Lanka, who had beaten China, went down to Kazakhastan 14-20 in Taraz. As usual, all kinds of excuses were trotted out by the team management. Learn to take defeat and see where you have gone wrong, don't make silly excuses. Then take the Hong Kong International 7's - lost all preliminary games to New Zealand (0-51) Scotland (13-19) and Portugal (0-33) and Morocco (5-14) in the Bowl category. Sri Lanka were then invited for the IRB Singapore 7's and IRB Malaysia 7's, but at the last moment, the invitations were withdrawn and Chinese Taipei was brought in!! Last year (2001) in the 15's game, Sri Lanka, fared pretty well to win the IRB/ARFU Triangular beating Malaysia (18-7) and Thailand (46-17), but where 7's were concerned, what were the results? They lost all games in the Hong Kong 7's - Australia 0-64, Portugal 7-28 and South Korea 0-49 in the preliminaries and to Arabian Gulf in the Bowl category. At the Shanghai 7's too, Sri Lanka was deprived of a single win, losing to Argentina 0-34, Japan 5-38, New Zealand 0-37 and even to Canada 0-45 in the Bowl category. Came the Dubai 7's and they lost to Scotland 10-31, New Zealand 5-77 and Portugal 14-28, but beat Kenya 24-14 in the Bowl before finally losing to Wales 12-24. Then at the King's Cup 7's, Sri Lanka lost to Germany, Wales and Chinese Taipei, but did well to beat Belgium and China. Then at the Singer/Sri Lankan 7's, they beat South Korea (26-19) and the Czech Republic (28-5), but lost to Malaysia 12-14 and in the Cup category for the first time beat Germany 21-14 in the 'quarters' only to lose to South Korea 14-24 in the 'semis' after beating the Koreans in the preliminaries. Foreign players helped About 10 years back there was a sudden rise in our standards. A tremendous improvement was seen in the clubs which helped the national side too. This could be attributed to the foreign professionals who were signed on by the clubs at that time. Now, all facilities are given to the players, but they have not been performing - not producing results. China has improved by leaps and bounds, whereas Sri Lanka have not. Its just amazing Sri Lanka are not with the modern game, unlike other countries. We have to have separate squads for 7's and 15-a-side game and get down a top foreign coach and put things in order. China is an example with George Simpkin coaching them. Sri Lanka needs to get their act together and face reality. Simpkin is a coach who has proved his mettle. He 'did it' in Hong Kong and now in China. He is no stranger to Sri Lanka's rugby. He has helped with our national team in the past and Kandy Sports Club too. Get down Simpkin, an ideal person, and give him two or three years to show results. I am quite certain that he will show results as he has done in Hong Kong and China to a great extent. The SLFRU seems to be going in for quantity instead of quality. Take for example the 'A' Division. Teams like Old Zahirians, Galle RFC and even Navy, Air Force and Kandy Youth go down like ten pins against top opposition. The players get dejected and who loses? It's the sport itself in the end. Then take the 'B' Division, now broken into two. Teams like Ruhunu RFC, Hambantota RFC, Matara RFC, Bentara RFC and Ratgama RFC, are making their debuts. The Outstation League has 16 new 'faces' in Balangoda RFC, Sabaragamuwa RFC, Kegalle RFC, Ratnapura RFC, Eheliyagoda RFC, Embilipitiya RFC Sri Jayawardenepura University, Katugastota RFC, Polgolla RFC, Mawilmada RFC, Matale RFC, Nuwara Eliya RFC, Jawatte Lions SC, Pilimatalawa RFC, Pelawatte SC and Old Duttians SC. Are these clubs ready for major tournaments like this? How many years it took Police to qualify to figure in the 'A' Division? Come, come SLRFU where are you'll headed? It's high time that personalities with proven track records of the calibre of Y.C. Chang, Malik Samarawickreme, Gamini Fernando and Kishin Bhutani, to name a few, are brought back into the SLRFU administration in attempts to revive this beautiful game. For a start, form a committee with the above named persons and other reputed people of proven track records and get them to show how rugby could be brought back into the standards and what it should be. It's high time something is done about the entire set up. |
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