Sri Lanka had 103,000 registered rugby union players in 2012

by Hafiz Marikar

Sri Lanka Rugby is mainly played at a semi-professional and recreational level. It's a popular team sport with a history dating back to 1879 and making it the second-oldest rugby union playing nation in the World. According to IRB statistics in 2012 there were 103,000 registered rugby union players in Sri Lanka making it the second largest rugby playing nation in Asia behind Japan.

Ceylon Rugby Football Union was founded in 1908 and it was the first Rugby Union in Asia. The SLRFU joined the IRB in 1988.

In March 2011, the IRB stripped the SLRFU of full member status after it failed to conduct board elections in accordance with the By-Laws. The SLRFU's full membership, however, was subsequently re-started following the successful completion of the Union's Annual General Meeting.

Sri Lanka introduced the game of rugby at the same time as India and the first rugby club in Sri Lanka was the Colombo Football Club, which was founded in 1879 . In 1896 the Colombo Football Club amalgamated with CH and FC. The first rugby match in Sri Lanka was played between two selected teams that clashed on 30th June between Colombo and a 'World' Team.

The first-ever club game to be played was on 7th September 1880 and it was between Dickoya MCC and Dimbulla ACC at Darawella, with Dickoya MCC winning the game by 9 points to 3. Today these two clubs are out of rugby and there seems to be no attempt to get the two parties back into the game because of the players required for rugby are insufficient in the hills right now and it is difficult to get up sufficient players for practices and teams for a season.

Dating back to 1885, E.H. Joseph became the first Ceylonese to represent a English School in Cricket and Rugby. Then in 1891 rugby was introduced to the Kandy's Boys High School by old Trinitian L.E. Blaze, later the name was changed to Kingswood College. So, their first inter-school game was between Trinity College and Kingswood in 1906, which ended in a six-all-draw.

All-Ceylon vs All Blacks

Sri Lanka's first 'national' match involved an All-Ceylon team playing against the professional All-Blacks. The New Zealand rugby league team under rugby union rules on their 1907-1908 tour of England, played a match on 12th September 1907. The professional All-Blacks won the match 33-6. The professional All-Blacks only played on being guaranteed a fee of 50. This resulted some unhappy moments and English Rugby Football Union banned its member countries from playing representative matches in Ceylon.

As a result in 1908 the Australia national rugby union team passed through the Port of Colombo on their way to England via the Suez Canal, without playing a game in Ceylon. The only solution to ensure matches against foreign teams during their brief stop over's in Colombo was the formation of a National Rugby Union, affiliated to the English Rugby Football Union.

On 10th of August 1908 a historic meeting of the Ceylon Rugby Football Union (Ceylon RFU) was held at the Grand Orient Hotel in Colombo, with the representatives from CH & FC, Uva Gymkhana Club, Kelani Valley Club, Kandy Sports Club. The representative from Uva C. Boucher was elected as the first president of the Rugby Union with J.G. Cruickshank elected honorary secretary. Boucher held the chairman's position until 1914 but J.G. Cruickshank resigned from the post in 1910.

On 20 August 1910, an exhibition rugby match was played between a team the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment and a combined Ceylon team. Then in 1922 the first rugby club to include Ceylonese players, when CR and FC was formed.

The country's first involvement in a rugby tournament was in 1926 when Ceylon RFU sent an All-Ceylon team (comprising entirely of Europeans) to compete in the All India Rugby tournament (originally known as the Madras Presidency Rugby tournament) held in Madras. It was also the maiden overseas tour by a rugby team from Sri Lanka. In 1928 the team tied for the championship and in 1929, under the captaincy of J. D. Farquharson, won it outright defeating Madras by 11 points to 8.

In 1932 won the Cup for the second time defeating Calcutta. At the 1938 tournament, the Ceylon RFU fielded two teams one wholly comprising Europeans and the other Ceylonese.

The Ceylonese team making history, when in their first match they defeated a Combined Planters team by 16 points to nil. The Ceylon RFU ceased participating in the competition in the late 1960s.

Rugby flourished in Sri Lanka

During this time the game of rugby flourished in Ceylon mainly due to the planting sector enthusiasm and commitment to promote rugby in the country. Then in 1930, Ceylon played British Lions and lost 0-45 and in 1950 British Lions' tour to New Zealand and Australia again suffered a loss 44-6.

In 1938, the Western Australia Rugby Union sent a side to Ceylon, play five matches against Up-Country, Low-Country, All-Ceylon, Ceylonese and All-Colombo. The side won three out of their four matches. (Low-Country 11-9, Up-Country 24-3, Ceylonese 16-6) losing to All-Ceylon 12-3.

In 1953 an Australian Colts side toured Ceylon, defeating Low-Country 35-11, All-Ceylon 39-nil, Up-Country 32-3, the Barbarians 30-3 and All-Ceylon 11-3.

In 1955, the New Zealand Colts team tour won against Low-Country 35-5, Up-Country 24-3, All-Ceylon 35-nil and against the Barbarians 33-nil.

In 1957, the Australian Colts team returned for a second tour in Ceylon beating Low-Country 14-9, Up-Country 43-nil, All-Ceylon 21-nil, the Barbarians 22-nil and All-Ceylon 37-3.

In 1959 a combined Oxford and Cambridge team played against Colombo and won 41-nil, All-Ceylon 37-3, Up-Country 52-nil, the Barbarians 55-nil and 45-nil against All-Ceylon.

Sri Lanka improved in rugby

Despite not performing well on the international arena, Sri Lanka is sometimes considered one of the rugby's success stories with crowds of forty or fifty thousand turning out for club rugby games.

Sri Lanka's problems have been threefold, firstly with the lack of finance, secondly as being a third world country its infrastructure left much to be desired, thirdly, the country has been war-torn zone for over 30 years.

In 1998 the SLRFU were admitted into the IRB as a member of the Asian Rugby Football Union.

Thereafter, with the formation of the shorter formation of the game introduced by the IRB World wide Sri Lanka initially got on to a poor Start, but later with the introduction of the Singer, Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby Sevens in 1999 this tournament was confined to only the Asian region, later it invited teams from Europe and Africa. Members of the ARFU (Asian Rugby

Football Union) found this tournament had a lot of scope with the development of rugby, particularly in the Asian region.