Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) and the Sri Lanka Ministry of Sports join hands in terms of developing the fast moving game island wide. This programme will run through nine (9) provinces, twenty five (25) districts and ninety seven (97) education zones. Interestingly SLRFU kicked off this process firstly by training the sports officer’s island wide of the sports ministry who has been skillful in other sports but not rugby.
SLRFU conducted a coaching camp for those officers under the guidance of veterans Sanath Martis, Viper Gunarathne and Ananda Kasturiarachchi who are the IRB level 3 qualified educators in the island. Those officers will get the number of participation increased for rugby in their districts by introducing the sport and thereafter having coach educators will visit to deliver their structural programme.
This programme is supervised by the executive director of SLRFU, Rohan Gunarathne and Thilak Alphonso who is the sports development officer at the ministry of sports.
Below video is about an interesting sports officer from Jaffna Anandarasa Wasanthan. He learnt firsthand the about the oval shape ball game at the camp. “Jaffna university has started rugby and they conducted a programme last year, we will develop that and sustain this sport that is my aim, there are so many football and basketball players who have core skills we will introduce this to more places in Jaffna and within six months. We will try to make a team to play in the basic level of rugby”, said Wasanthan.
So far this programme has been a fruitful one as the SLRFU and the sports ministry have delivered a successful campaign in conducting training for over 11 Physical Training Instructors and 426 girls and boys from the Mahiyanganaya District in the Uva Province. School boys and girls from Mahiyangana National School, Orubendiwewa Central, Bandaranayake Central Mapakadawewa, Giradhurukotte Central and Dambana National School were among those who participated. This is a very rural area in the island where most of the indigenous (Wedda’s) population live.
The main objective of ‘Get Into Rugby’ programme, an initiative of International Rugby Board (IRB), now known as World Rugby, is to educate schools that are totally strange to the game of Rugby. Shenal Dias, Dhanushka Ranjan are two big names in the national squad who came without knowing what rugby is and hopefully this initiative shall bring many talented prospects to shine the country in the future.
Also women’s rugby development manager Mrs. Thanuja Kulatunge stated that “we are delighted with numbers coming in to this sport especially female participation, and we believe this will help us to find more talents in the future for the Sri Lanka women’s rugby as a whole.
