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| Sunday, 22 January 2006 |
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SLRFU goes for quality by Lal Gunesekera At long last, the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) have opened their eyes wide and have taken steps to make this year's Caltex League Rugby Championship more competitive and interesting. The SLRFU have separated the teams in the 'A' division into two tiers, which not only reduces the number of games, but also the tournament to eight weeks starting in May. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SLRFU Dilroy Fernando, told the Sunday Observer that the new format was proposed by the Council though there were some objections from Air Force and Old Zahirians, but the Tournament Committee, which has a representative from every club this year, approved of it unanimously last Wednesday. The sponsors too like the new idea. There will be a Promotion and Demotion scheme in operation. According to the new format, the six top teams of last year (Kandy Sports Club, CR & FC, CH & FC, Army, Havelocks and Navy) are in the 'A' 1 league and will play each other once in the first-round. Police, Air Force and Old Zahirians are in 'A' 2 of the league and will be joined by sides from the Southern Province RFU, Central Province RFU (Kandy SC 'B', Old Kingswoodians, Old Antonians, Senkadagala RFC or Kurunegala RFC), and Western Province RFU (Petersons or Jawatte Lions). They too will play each other once in the first-round. The second-round will see 12 teams playing on a round-robin basis. The first four will play each other for the Cup, 5 to 8 for the Plate and 9 to 12 for the Bowl. The SLRFU also decided to conduct the Clifford Cup Knock-Out tournament in August, while the President's Trophy Knock-Out competition has been revived, but will be an Inter-Provincial tournament, to be played end September. Fernando said that the short season will leave the national side about 1 1/2 months to train for the Asiad to be staged from November 16 to 25 at three venues (Longdon Place, Sugathadasa Stadium and Royal College Sports Complex). Fifteen countries will compete, with Japan and South Korea too agreeing to play their final game in the Rugby World Cup (Asia qualifier) in Colombo during this period. Sri Lanka, in the meantime, will play their RWC Asian Qualifiers against Hong Kong in Hong Kong on May 13 and against China on April 29 in Colombo. The Sri Lanka squad has already started their training during weekends under the four-member coaching staff comprising George Simpkin (national coach), C. P. Abeygunawardene (assistant coach), Jayatilleke (Strength and Conditioning Trainer) and Yogananda Wijesundera (Speed Trainer). Sqdr. Ldr. Sanjay Fernando continues to be the manager with Jude Pillai as manager for the Sri Lanka 7's side. The SLRFU conducted a coaches workshop last week where 18 persons attended, while a referees workshop (32 registered) is presently under way at the Football House with past players in the calibre of Asoka Jayasena, Imthishan Marikkar, Sudath Sampath, Naufer Rahim, Bimal Perera, Lalith Leelaratne, Mushtaq and former Army skipper Waduge attending it which augurs well for the sport. Lanka Lions in Orient Lanka Lions from Dubai managed by former Sri Lanka scrum-half Roger Rodrigo is among the 32 teams that will vie for honours at the first of the Singer Professional 7's tournament on January 28 and 29. On the first day, matches will be played at both the University grounds ('B Division teams and new entrants) and Longden Place where the top teams will be seen in action. Forty-two teams entered, but was restricted to 32. Two sides from Hong Kong, including their Development Squad and another,
will be seen in action at the second of the Singer Professional 7's to be
worked off in Galle on February 18 and 19, while the third Singer 7's event
is fixed for September 2 and 3 at Radella to coincide with the centenary of
rugby at Dimbulla. |
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