Masters Not In Charge

After much controversey, the schools rugby season has begun in earnest. How earnest we will know soon enough, because the Sports Minister has threatened to indefinitely postpone the tournament due to the absence of a rule book.

Hardly a trivial matter, the absence of rules in this country. It seems to work quite well in government departments and corporate life. The Honourable Minister will do well to impose his standards on other areas of Lankan life as well. Nevertheless, he has a point. Rules need to be in existence. And they are currently not.

The absence of rules was rather apparent when Wesley College were recommend enormously large bans to some of their players. The bans are still to be implemented, but unconfirmed reports have it that Jayaweera, the hapless Wesley second row, faces a one year ban for the least culpability in the entire fracas at the tail end of Trinity v Wesley encounter which kicked off the season.

Jayaweera chases back and tries to prevent Sakalasooriya from scoring Trinity’s tenth try. For a guy chasing back the opposition’s tenth try, he should be given a medal rather than a ban to be honest. He runs into Sakalsooriya, who had grounded the ball, leading with his shoulder. It was not even close to the worst thing I’ve seen on a rugby pitch this year. He runs around, raises his arm and apologises to the referee, and carries on until Sakalasooriya has a rush of blood, dashes the ball to the ground – which itself is a penalty – and advances on Jayaweera. When a team is winning by 40 hopefully they will have the good sense to be empathetic of the opposition’s frustrations. But that wasn’t the case. While facing the advancing Sakalasooriya, Jayaweera gets pushed, hard, in the back by Madena. A yellow card at the very least, if not red, for the being the third man into a fight.

The fact that these niceties were lost on the adjudicators is both hilarious, and tragic. With Jayaweera getting the longest ban for the mildest crime. The two Trinity players escape without sanction. Unbelievable. The disparity of one year vs. nothing at all, is mind boggling.

That the Wesley team and the bench should receive harsh punishment goes without saying. There is never a situation where a bench should empty onto the pitch and home teams must ensure that the crowds are controlled. Wesley failed on both counts and should be penalised.

The fact that the immediate response has been similar to the Dharmaraja vs Joes fight is also laughable. In that situation, the Rajan player had been carded and took a swing at an opposition player on his way out of the ground. The circumstances were much, much worse and the crowd invasion far more severe. That this incident should warrant a similar ban is just bad administration.

And what can you expect of bad administrators, but just that? DSS were admitted to the competition at the 11th hour. When the issue had been brewing since the end of last season. It’s shambolic. It really is.

And despite the shambles the tournament is followed avidly by keenly interested fans in their thousands. Surely, they deserve better? Sponsors deserve better for the millions they pump into the sport. Where do those millions go? The schools bear the cost of the games, they pay the coaches, hire the grounds and also chip in for the referees, so what of the much vaunted title sponsorship cash?

I dunno.