By A Special Sports Correspondent
Sports in Sri Lanka get much blessings. This can be seen when sports take place at school level. That’s the time when sportsmen and women- still in school- show resilience and endurance to balance sports and studies and most importantly do all that without demanding money like professionals. We are talking about sport here; largely disciplines done at competitive level. The reason to bring this topic up for discussion and review is that these great qualities are lost as boys and girls grow up and step into the adults’ world.
In Sri Lanka we see the best of sportsmen and women when they are in school. This is very true in sports like cricket, swimming, rugby, athletics, water polo and tennis; all which are glamour sports. Out of all these disciplines rugby at school level is so fiercely competitive that students will do anything to keep their head on the line.
School rugby is again getting ready for a new hectic season; the official tournament scheduled to kick off in March 22 with the Under 20 Elite Rugby Sevens. This will be followed by the league tournament in June and the President’s Trophy Knockout Tournament in August. We just saw the conclusion of the Zahira Centenary Sevens, which of course is a one-off tournament and was held specifically to mark 100 years of rugby at this great academic institute that stands tall in Maradana. There is no confirmation about this tournament being added to the school’s rugby calendar as a permanent event. Good if it is!
Rugby is a great leveler. People from all walks of life take to this sport. There have been times when circumstances bring out the beast in you, but then, after the final whistle goes in the game of rugby, all are friends again. This camaraderie is what gels people together at times when disagreements take place and there are differences of opinion.
We saw a couple of occasions during last season when aggression boiled to the surface and things became ugly in the school rugby scene. These incidents even came to the attention of the referee. There were occasions when the referee even warned both sides to keep their cool and control aggression. The school rugby field is the best place to experience the high-octane feelings that victory brings and deal with the depression that engulfs you when a team ends up as the loser. There were quite a couple of occasions when schoolboy behaviour came in for criticism last season and even worse when adults or parents justified these acts by teenage sportsmen, who couldn’t absorb the fact that the other team was better.
Unfortunately last season the cream of the schoolboy rugby players couldn’t make the tour for the Asian Championship because Sri Lanka Rugby was banned by World Rugby, Asian Rugby and the country’s very own Ministry of Sports. This is one tour where people from all walks of life come together and see rugby through one pair of glasses sans any colour, class or creed. Even in the past the Asian Under 20 tournament has served as a tour for players to settle old rivalries and differences and think of ‘what one can do for the country’.
School rugby was also given much value over the past few years with a leading sports website giving these matches live coverage. This brought the rugby action to the living room at home, but there was no drop in attendance by spectators at venues. School rugby remained ‘the king of the sport’ giving huge mileage to sponsors who tied up with the game.
Even this season too, the excitement is building up already. There are two new teams in the top league who are Thurstan and Sri Sumangala Kandy and much is expected from them. The only issue is whether these teams can survive the knocks in Division 1 Segment A which is packed with the cream of schoolboy teams in the island.
Rugby training is on already and all teams are gearing up for challenges this season. St. Peter’s has retained its position as ‘top dog’ in school rugby once again and showed its prowess in the abbreviated form of rugby union by winning the Zahira Centenary Sevens held recently. This team beat Isipatana in the final.
Rugby is a game of wonders spiced with ruthlessness and bravado, but still it’s a game played by gentlemen. Schools which have taken to rugby will not only cherish their traditional fixtures, but also do all to maintain the image they’ve built over the years.