Last weekend’s Dialog Rugby League 2019/20 clash between CR & FC and Police SC saw a disappointing turn of events with the visitors CR & FC forfeiting the game in the 60th minute of play.
The consequent turn of events saw Police Sports Club being awarded the win by the match commissioner based on the 27-16 score line that was intact at the 60th minute of play.
Match commissioner Zafarulla Rahman added specifically that since there was a concern and a threat to player safety, the match-day doctor intervened to check on what was happening.
Speaking to ThePapare on the events that unfolded, a senior official from the CR & FC rugby administration expressed his displeasure at the actions which were taken.
“We had a few players who had sore eyes after the Kandy game and out of them few were recovered to play. We (CR) discussed the matter with the match commissioner and they were cleared to play.”
“Omalka who was also cleared by the commissioner then subbed in a blood bin substitute and following that Police had made a written complaint against our players after the game had commenced. Following that, the match-day doctor prevented Omalka from playing the remainder of the game”
“We ran out of forwards substitutes and were forced to play the players out of position. We were at a clear disadvantage”
“Had we been informed on this before the match commenced, we could have had stand-by players added to the team list.”
However, the match day doctor assigned for the game added to ThePapare.com that this decision to disallow Gunaratne from taking the field was taken after clear inspection and to prevent the spreading of the infection to the other players.
“Before the match, Police management came up with a complaint regarding 4 CR & FC players who were said to have conjunctivitis.
A written complaint came from the management in the 2nd minute of play and following the match commissioner’s directive I inspected the players. Out of the 4 players, 3 were clear but Omalka Gunaratne showed clear symptoms.
His(Omalka) eyes were swollen and red. It was a clear case of conjunctivitis and the CR & FC manager accepted it and abided by my verdict to not play him.
But in the 60th minute, the CR management wanted to sub in Omalka. When the match commissioner refused, they(CR) wanted to pull their team out of the game.”
Dr. Sankalpana added that the decision was taken for the safety of all persons involved in the match.
“Match doctor’s responsibility is for player safety. A contagious disease puts his team, the opposition and the match officials at severe risk.”
According to top sources at Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR), an inquiry is set to be held to decide the outcome of the match shortly.
