What a weekend it was and the schools rugby season in SL is just getting “bloody” and “hotter.”
The unbeaten Rajans are on their way to create history in becoming the League Champions for the first time. They beat the Anthonian Eagles by whopping 46 – 24 at Bogambara last Sunday and slowly but steadily walking towards the crown to become the new Kings of School’s Rugby.
The supporters of double blue boys Wesley screamed Zum Zum Zakey at Mount when they beat Science College in a keenly contested battle. With this win Wesley reoccupy their 3rd slot in the league table over St.Peter’s.
The first surprise !! The Peterites who traveled to Kandy to face Kingswood never ever would have expected that the Raddle Hill boys will beat them 41-15 points. The Kings meant business from the first whistle and never allowed St.Peter’s to settle in that game. Kings rattled the Peterite defense in regular intervals in a game that 17 year old Peterite flanker Nishon Perera scored two sensational tries for his team. Now Peterites will go down to the 4th position and interesting to see how they will finish off the season.
More surprises were at CR & FC when the Joes ended the unbeaten run of the fancied Trinitians disappointing their fans in a no quarter asked-none given game. I am sure the boys from Kandy would have taken this game so lightly and was surprised when they were completely outplayed by the Joes who were placed rock bottom of the league. The Joes captain Jason Melder and his boys will happy to move out from relegation zone for the first time and would be hoping to remain there in the coming 2 weeks.
Then the hot topic over the week was the Royal vs Pathana game for the Late Major Milroy Fernando trophy at RC complex which was a drama.
Rugby is known as elegant violence. But this story has two sides. The media reports on press and other social media sites almost the same story that Isipathana players punched Royal players right throughout the game and the hell broke loose when the Royalists walked out after the scores were leveled by a drop kick by the Pathana fly half mid way though the 2nd half.
A report from Royal College says allegations of unsportsmanlike behavior against Isipathana that lead to a few blood injuries of their key players and they walked off as a protest to the referee for not spotting either of them. However the story of Isipathana camp is different as they say there is a referee and 2 Assistant Referees to control a game and spot any foul play. Therefore they continued to play the game as per to the referee’s whistle when the crowd at Royal Complex with something unusual happening next as the Green shirts scored their last try with no opposition defending in front of them.
Since the Royalists were walked out from the grounds and refused to continue the game, the late Major Milroy Fernando was awarded to Isipathana by the principal of Royal College Mr.Upali Gunasekara who was also the former principal of Isipathana few years ago.
The supporters of the Havelock town have taken this incident in to a different level on social media and say that Royal College “chickened out” as they were losing the game and blood injuries do happen in a contact sport.
Well It’s not something new as Isipathana too did the same in that famous stone throwing Semi Final game against St.Peter’s in 2010 at CR crying it was a protest against the officials of the game.
There were many Royalists who were present at the match went on to say – “Injuries is different to being punched deliberately and we had over 6 blood injuries plus few of our players were hospitalized that night with severe head injuries as well which is quite unlikely in a rugby game”.
I spoke to few past rugby players from both schools to get their insights about this incident.
Ravundu Athukorala (who is also knows as “Bua” among his friends) –a past Royal rugby player who also played for CH few seasons said that “deliberate and violent play as a tactic should be condemned and clearly differentiated from good old fashioned — hard contested rugby … Kicking heads , stomping and eye gouging is thuggery and not allowed anywhere in sport or day to day life”
Bilal Yousuf – The head coach of Royal stressed on a talk show on Yes Fm last evening that “two of their players are currently in the eye hospital. These are not typical rugby injuries and royal have protested and awaiting a fair out come. I hope justice will prevail and we are in the process of getting the video footage which royal is very confident with the evidence the video has gets a fair outcome”
A past captain of Royal – Suvindha Lenaduwa stated that “I Personally I never believe in walking out of a game, but if it’s due to the safety of my players I will definitely go ahead with it but at the same time making sure that the game cannot carry on after we have left the field. Not doing so is what cost us the game”
Interestingly I also requested one of the greatest rugby players Isipathana have produced in the recent past, who is also a national player to give his opinion. He wished to remain anonymous for personal reasons as he had a different opinion to others.
He believed that he cannot be happy with this win and it’s not a real win for Pathana as the trophy was given to them. He also went on to say that “Royal shouldn’t have kicked the ball out when they had the ball for the kick off after the drop goal by Hirantha. They also shouldn’t have walked out of the field. But Isipathana continued to play the game as the referee requested them to take the penalty to restart as Royal delayed the kick off and showed frustration by kicking the ball out. At the same time we shouldn’t have scored the try when there was no defense. Plus If there were so many blood bins due to punching, how come the referee and the 2 AR’s did not spot any of them ? So I should say it was poor refereeing too”
Finally he concluded saying “It was such sad end for a good game of rugby and I’m sad that all the people are insulting each other schools in public and social media sites”
I also saw many Royal supporters have made remarks on their Facebook pages saying “Let that trophy be with Pathana forever” which sounds like that the Royal vs Pathana will be not played from next year?
Whatever said and done no one is bigger than the game and it should be played in the true spirit. I am sure this has to be thought and molded in to the heads of all those rugby players who start their rugby career from the U-11 age groups by the coaching staff at any cost.
I hope this fixture will continue in the coming years as the trophy is named in memory of a war Hero and a loving brother of 2 great Isipathanian rugby players Sanjaya and Dilroy Fernando who was also a top referee in Sri Lanka and recently hanged his whistle after refereeing over 550 games locally and internationally.
Let me conclude by repeating what I stated at the end in my last article.
RUGBY HAS NO OPPONENTS! BUT VICTIMS – Was this was proven in the Royal vs Isipathana game ? As the game ended with no opponents – But victims ?
Cheers
