Matches to commence on May 2

Schools rugby gets green light for league tourney

By M Naushad Amit

The Under-20 Inter-Schools Rugby League tournament has finally been given the green light after officials of the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) and Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) held a fruitful meeting at ‘Isurupaya’ in Battaramulla yesterday. Accordingly, the entire Inter-School Rugby tournament which includes 72 schools in all divisions throughout the country will begin from this Saturday (May 2) with the Division 1 top three segments comprising 10 teams each as decided at the meeting. The Ministry of Education and SLRFU have taken over the funding of Division 1, Segment ‘B’ and ‘C’ by providing referees, grounds and medics for all the matches while in the Segment ‘A’ they will be covering the referees’ fees. The SLSRFA will cover the ground and medical costs of Segment ‘A’ matches. The tournament secretary of SLSRFA, Gamini Sarathchandra speaking to The Bottomline said the meeting was successful. “It was decided to have 10 teams in each of Division 1, segments ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ to ease all the impending legal matters. Each school will have to play nine matches and from this season onwards it was decided to implement the disciplinary codes strictly. We have decided to abide by the tournament rules so all teams will be treated equally,” said Sarathchrandra.
After all attempts by the SLSRFA to conduct the tournament proved futile a few weeks ago, President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened in the matter by appointing the Chief Executive Officer of SLRFU, Lasitha Gunaratne as the coordinator for schools rugby. Commenting on the new development Gunaratne told The Bottomline that the Ministry of Education and SLRFU have decided to fund the upcoming inter-school rugby season. “We held talks with the officials of YFM, the sponsors who withdrew after the tournament was scrapped. So far they (YFM) have shown interest but the time factor will decide the final outcome,” said Gunaratne.
Gunaratne praised President Rajapaksa for intervening in the trouble-ridden school rugby league at the correct time. “If not for the involvement of the President this year’s school rugby league tournament would have been restricted to friendly matches. The President is a great lover of school rugby and he was greatly concerned about the issue. He instructed me and several other officials of the Ministry of Education and SLSRFA to somehow find a way to conduct an official league tournament. This is very encouraging for the boys,” added a delighted Gunaratne. According to Gunaratne, the upcoming inter-school rugby season will be conducted according to the new IRB rules where a match should be played for a 40-10-40 time duration. “Earlier each half of a school match was played for 35 minutes with a 10-minute break. The new time duration is in accordance with the IRB Under-20 rules,” he added.
“The rugby fraternity should be grateful to the President, the Ministry of Education and SLRFU. With their positive approach we are able to witness 295 school rugby matches during the coming weeks,” added Gunaratne. Earlier the schools rugby league tournament was scrapped by the SLSRFA for the year 2009 after a settlement couldn’t be reached in the court cases filed by Dharmaraja College and St. Anthony’s College, Kandy. The two schools from Kandy, who contested their relegation to the lower division, filed protests against Isipathana for fielding an ineligible player. However, after talks between the officials of two schools and SLSRFA failed, the governing body decided to hold the Division 1, segment ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ matches on a friendly basis resulting in the sponsors, ‘YFM’, withdrawing their lavish sponsorship. Meanwhile a spokesman for YFM confirmed that they were approached by SLRFU to reconsider the sponsorship. “We are not in a position to immediately give a positive word. We are still considering the matter and hope things can be finalised within the course of the next couple of days,” the source said. LK Jayaweera, Director of Sports and Nihal Fernando Asst. Director of Sports represented the Ministry of Education while Lasitha Gunaratne, CEO of SLRFU, KAD Punyadasa representing SLSRFA and Principals of the top segment teams took part at the meeting. The following teams will play in the top segments of Division I:
Segment ‘A’: Kingswood, Trinity, St. Peter’s, Royal Colombo, S. Thomas’, Isipathana, St. Anthony’s, Dharmaraja, St. Joseph’s and Mahanama.
Segment ‘B’: Vidyartha, Wesley, Thurstan, Ananda, Prince of Wales, St. Sylvester’s, Lumbini, Science, Zahira and DS Senanayake College.
Segment ‘C’: CWW Kannangara MV, St. Benedict’s, Nalanda, St. Aloysius, St. John’s, Carey, Piliyandala Central, Royal Panadura, Maliyadeva and St. Thomas’ Matara.