ThePapare.com verified reports of Royal College Coach Sanath Martis endeavouring to change the referees ahead of the most revered Bradby Shield.
The Chief of the Referees Union, Mr Orville Fernando was quite livid in his confirmation of the report stating that through the game’s history no person has put pressure on the Union as to which referees should be adjudicate which games.
Mr Fernando stated that even with the president’s sons playing for the Navy there was no such meddling and that Coach Martis would do best to work on his game plan instead of trying to ‘fix’ things to suit his cause.
Mahesh Senanayke the secretary of the referees union is reported to have sent Mr Martis a strongly worded message refusing to discuss referee’s matters until the Bradby is over.
ThePapare.com contacted the Royal College principal and the Royal College Rugby Advisory & Management committee who stated that Mr Martis did not contact the referees union, but that they, Royal College and the Rugby Advisory & Management committee wrote to the Sri Lanka School Rugby Association copying the Referees Union officially requesting a foreign referee for this important encounter. The referees union has declined on the grounds that the first leg of the Bradby is a league game but have shown willingness to permit it for the second leg.
Royal College and the Rugby Advisory & Management committee have also officially protested the appointment of Mr Dimithri Gunasekara as referee for the Bradby shield first leg, based on the fact that the referee in question was suspended for two games after the Royal-Isipathana ‘eye-gouging’ incident in 2013 and siting that Gunasekara has only officiated in two games this season and therefore not competent to handle a high-pressure match such as the Bradby. Thirdly, his level of refereeing has also been questioned, in particular in the Wesley v Trinity game last week.
