Tackling Violence Hard

The Colombo weather this morning reflects the gloom that hangs around schools rugby in general. The gloom caused by the ugly, dark, cloud of crowd violence. Just this weekend we’ve seen clashes at the Royal v Wesley game, a stoppage for a bottle thrown at the SPC v Kingswood game, an attempted attack on the referee in at the STC v Maliyadeva game in Kurunegala and a vicious brawl at the DS v Science match. And that’s just in one weekend.

In the previous week Kingswood supporters attacked the referee and injured Isipatana supporters in Nittawela while Isipatana supporters themselves were in the thick of some bottle throwing and abuse against St. Peter’s at Havelock Park.

Listing the incidents though, is as pointless as counting the bodies on either side of a conflict. Unless root causes are addressed and accountability is ensured, this will be the same story season after season, with even death or maiming not being a deterrent to what has become Colombo and Kandy and a few other suburb’s favourite pastime.

In order to address the issue we need to understand the causes. In my view there are two ‘root’ causes.

Officiating  – Let’s make it clear. No amount of bad calls given the crowd or players the right to assault or intimidate a referee.

However, if we continue to ignore bad refereeing, nothing will change. For results to be different we need to try different methods. And the methods of dishing out mediocrity sans accountability week in, week out, has not yielded any positive results.

Refereeing in Sri Lanka is bad. It’s not as bad as it is in other countries, it’s actually worse, when considering the amount of resources that go into schools rugby. Sure, Sunday League referees in many parts of the world are probably pot-bellied and killing time before their next beer. However, the Singer Schools League is not that kind of a league. It’s a competitive, high-stakes, heavily financed league which should reflect the right kind of professionalism from those in charge.

With refereeing having lost its credibility, every crowd member tends to question any call made against their team. In close games, given the complexity of rugby’s laws in the first place, these calls are difficult for a lot of uneducated crowd members to fathom. Many parents have never played the game and believe that their sons can do no wrong. A vast majority of old boys are the same. As a result antipathy towards a referee builds up for 70 minutes with emotion spilling over at the end of the game.

The best way to protect referees is not to penalise host teams or provide body guards – although these are necessary measures. The best way to protect them is by empowering them with competence. While many right-thinking members of the rugby public are more than willing to accept a missed knock-on or genuine mistake, the current interpretations and whistle-happy, officious nature of referees are not going to win the PR battle.

Every referee makes mistakes. But let’s not forget it’s not a voluntary job anymore. It’s a paid assignment, for which consequences should be seen in terms of demotion and promotion of referees. Politics and mismanagement has kept past players and knowledgeable individuals out of the system. Unless the SLSRFR fixes these things internally, their blame game and knee-jerk response of boycotting schools, will not work. When one referee officiates more than one match in which violence erupts afterwards the Association needs to examine cause and effect. While this does not in any way look to condone violence, the referees themselves must ask what they can do to alleviate the perception of the officials.

Political wranglings such as getting rid of the interim committee via the Sports Minister and jettisoning Garrett Williamson an international referee who was doing a good job, doesn’t hint at the bona fides of the referees. Allegations of nepotism and favouritism are rife. All these will be forgotten with good performances on the field, but none are forthcoming.

The Sense of Entitlement – for me this is the second of the ‘root’ causes. Every team that steps on the park from the captain, the coach, the principal to the old boys and parents, all think that they are entitled to win the match. This is not something unique to rugby and is the cause of much of this country’s woes.

Any sporting contest requires a winner and loser. The chances of one of two evenly matched teams losing a game is 50%. These probabilities go higher or lower for unevenly matched teams, and teams that just don’t perform well on the day.

It is this sense of entitlement that doesn’t allow schools to accept defeat. This inability, which results in undue pressure on referees, coaches and players compound the already spiralling situation.

Committees feel that they have sacrificed their time and found money for their teams so they feel entitled that the team wins. Old boys feel that their old school winning a rugby match gives them bragging rights and makes them better people than the losers’ team, so they feel entitled not to have their source of egotism fail them. Parents feel that their sons are the next best thing to sliced bread and therefore entitled to succeed at everything they put their hand do. Coaches see high salaries and know that only a win will guarantee that so they feel entitled to pressure the system unreasonably to obtain the W’s.

These factors combine to a massive spillover of insecurity and emotional degeneration when – as stated above – the 50% probability of losing happens. The sense of entitlement means that each actor has to blame another, and for coaches and spectators, the referee or opposition spectators are the easy target.

Because it’s never your fault is it?

To add to these ’causes’ there are also ‘contributory factors’

Ignorance – This is a massive factor as most spectators couldn’t tell an offside line from a line of coke or a side entry from a double entry in their accounts books. Nevertheless, they feel it within their remit to contest refereeing decisions, and notwithstanding what was said above, even Sri Lankan referees are more knowledgeable than a vast majority of Sri Lankan crowds.

Grandstanding Coaches – As said above, coaches get paid six figures to coach schoolboys in what is objectively a fairly average high-school competition. In order to justify their losses they must necessarily pass blame to someone else. The referee is the easiest target. Hands in the air type of remonstrations when things go against them is common from many coaches. Crowds take their cue from an emotional coach and infer that the referee is siding against them. Coaches need to take more responsibility in their behaviour which is being watched by spectators including young players. Given some of the decisions however, you have to empathise with some coaches.

Weak Administration – Today’s newspapers say Kingswood have been given a rap on the knuckles and warned for the incident in which an Isipatana supporter was hit by a bottle. No action has been reported against any of the other incidents with inquiries not being publicised.

In previous years punishments have been redundant ones with teams being banned for 6 months in the off season, allowing them to compete in the following year. As a result bad behaviour knows that it will have no actual consequences. Unless the schools Association actually insists on playing matches in closed stadiums for offending schools, nothing will happen.

However, they can’t do that because these offending schools are headed by their buddies, with whom they serve on the Committee of the Schools Association. It’s a conflict of interest which cannot be overcome without an independent body running the school game.

Tribalism – There is a sense of ‘with us or against us’ attitude in Schools rugby. If anyone criticises something there is a huge backlash. If old boys suggest their school should have done something differently they are hounded out. If someone insists that winning is not the sole prize, they are laughed at.

Likewise, the tribalism doesn’t allow for camaraderie or respect. In this weekend’s most recent punch up, the losing team did their best to attack the referee, and while this was prevented, an equally chest thumping parade across the ground from the winning team’s prefects culminated in an unacceptable brawl. This triumphalism and inability to congratulate a winner or commiserate with a loser is an ugly trend. It is ironic that the fights don’t actually happen between the players, but mostly the spectators who have little place else to vent their pent-up, petty, aggression.

The last thing players involved in a close game need is for their friends to thump them on the back or their parents to tell them to get home soon, or an old boy to give them sage advice. Leave the players alone after the game. Let them warm down, have a shower and go home.

Solutions –  

• Make sure every school guilty of any violence via their spectators plays behind closed doors.
• Identify assailants, take strict police action and ban them from games for life. Video footage and phone cameras make this a much easier job than it was in the past.
• Take strict disciplinary action against coaches and referees in equal measure when their standards drop below an acceptable standard. Inquiries should be made public and accountability should impact on future jobs and assignments. More than a few issues, and referee or coach should be banned from playing any part in the league.

Without punishment, nothing can be curbed. The long-term goals such as playing for enjoyment and reducing the pressure surrounding the game cannot be achieved if short term punitive measures are not taken. It is incredibly unfortunate that nobody is talking about Manilka Ruberu’s nerves of steel, young Stephan’s match saving cover tackle or Murshid Zubair’s guile and panache over the weekend. Instead we are all talking about acts of violence perpetrated by petty, malicious individuals.

It’s time for Schools rugby to take stock, both collectively and individually. If it does not, it will end up a sport where no decent, self-respecting schoolboy would want to go anywhere near. It will be a refuge for scoundrels, thugs and thieves. And we don’t need another one of those.