The Sri Lanka schools rugby football association has made it mandatory for all local coaches to be registered with the local governing body the SLSRFA told ThePapare.
The inter-school rugby league is scheduled to commence on the 11th of March while the 7’s will take place during February.
ThePapare.com managed to speak to the secretary of the Sri Lanka schools rugby football association Susantha Mendis to ask about the reasons for the decision. “There were a number of reasons which bought about this decision.
Firstly, to minimize the infamous doping and overage issues which have been floating around the local rugby arena for many years now. Secondly as the local rugby body we feel that the players are being over-trained and not given proper rest, hence many players suffer being burned-out and not been able to play to their true potential”.
“Also another reason which propelled us to take stern action was that most of the coaches who are in charge of the schools are not aware of proper coaching techniques. This has bought out many issues including player injury, player management, and player fatigue”.
“As the local governing body for schools rugby in Sri Lanka, we are embarrassed to say that we do not posses any form of information regarding the coaches.
If someone comes and asks us regarding coaches of a certain school, sometimes we are unaware which can’t be the case. We want to build up a database so that we know exactly who is responsible for each school. The schools section has come together with the SLRFU to improve the number of qualified coaches in the country”, said Mendis.
“Ideally what we want is to have qualified coaches for all schools, starting from the lower division. This would streamline everything related to rugby and place it in the right direction”.
The SLRFU and the schools association has requested all coaches to register with the local governing body before the 30th of January.
Mendis stated that all coaches who fail to register would not be permitted to enter in to the grounds during tournaments/matches.
Many ‘A’ division rugby teams have employed foreign coaches this year and Mendis said, “Even the foreign coaches have to be registered with us. If they do not register they will not be permitted to enter the grounds”, ended the SLSRFA secretary.
