For many many years Sri Lanka Rugby floated around aimlessly. Not getting too much right, plastering and patching up as they went along.
This ad-hoc methodology cost Sri Lanka too much and pushed it back too many years. The game of Rugby commenced in Sri Lanka in 1879 and it has taken this length of time to see proper direction. The Football Union has had a variety of committees headed by an assortment of personalities and countless of these committees have spoken of and promised to implement a proper rugby structure to the country and establish a system of professionalism to the sport; all the while making matters worse. The question is, if the necessary effort was really applied? Asanga Seneviratne is the newest to try his hand at this endeavour.
A system in place and new coach
The first test for Mr. Seneviratne is the upcoming Asian 5 Nations Division I tournament in Manila, which Sri Lanka was demoted into last season. The island was promoted into the top division in 2010 but the administrators who had close to a year to prepare, found themselves without a team and coach six weeks prior to Asia’s premier tournament. Unfortunately for Seneviratne, he has been put into a similar position this time but cannot be held responsible as he was appointed less than a month ago.
He and his committee have now found a coach and are getting a team together at current. Bringing in the high profiled Phil Greening from the United Kingdom is an excellent move on the part of the committee. It has been mentioned before that sevens rugby is the style that is more suited to Sri Lanka Rugby, that being said the longer version of the game is crucial making Greening ideal for this post as he has experience coaching both sevens and fifteens rugby at the top level.The fitness of players has often been an issue for Sri Lanka rugby and this has been handed over to Mothilal Jayathilake to solve as the fitness trainer of the National team. Jayathilake has proved successful with many teams both school and club and has been granted the trust and support of the SLRFU.
A plan much talked about in the past has been the setting up of a proper talent spotting and development programaround the country. It is essential that the SLRFU spot young talent early and set up a good platform to developand nurture it. The SLRFU committee has handed this over to the St. Peters College coach SanathMartis as hehas proved to be excellent at it over the years. Martis will be responsible for managing and developing SLRFUAcademies island wide in order to scout for potential players and give them the necessary backing. He will alsobe available to provide assistance to Greening with the National team if the need arises.
Player withdrawals and contracts
One of the prevalent issues the previous committees have faced is the withdrawal of players from national duty. Many companies, club sand external influences have prevented players from attending Sri Lanka training in the past. The new president addressed this situation explaining that “these players are professionals and the authorities in the past have not considered the future of these players and have put in training regimes that do not suit the players,naturally they will be asked to withdraw”. We have now solved this by asking the coaching staff and trainers to work around the training of the players and to make sure they are not over trained and injured as it happened previously. Players work commitment has also been an issue preventing them from attending national practice
Seneviratne’s solution to this is to include contracts for the players who have been selected for national duty. Twenty seven players will be contracted for two months for this year’s A5N. “We are looking at putting forward long term contracts from next year onwards in order to bring in the element of professionalism to the game” Seneviratne stated. When questioned if the SLRFU had enough funds to contract these players, the Treasurer Kiran Atapattu claimed that“the union has money and will find the money to pay the boys”.
The change up
The perpetual clash between the School’s , Club and international rugby seasons has been another thorn in the side of many bygone committees. The new administration has made an effort to solve this issue by making changes to the Caltex ‘A’ division league and Clifford cup. This year the club season will kick off as usual in June and run through to August. The change will come into effect thereafter with the next season commencing in mid November 2012 which will mean players will focus on fifteens for 6 months and sevens for the next 6. This way players can be conditioned to one or the other form of the game as required.
The 2013 domestic season will start in mid-November and go through to the first week of March.Thereafter the national team will go into training for the Asian 5 Nations which will be played in mid-April. This allows the national coach one and a half months to put together a strong outfit. In addition to this players would be coming off the back of the league which will mean their fitness will be at its peak and they will only need to maintain it through the International season. At the end of the A5N in early May, an off season period of one and a half months till mid June will be in effect. This will be followed by a series of domestic ‘sevens’ tournaments to be conducted by the SLRFU which would include the Carlton Super Sevens and other tournaments around the country. These domestic ‘sevens’ series will go on through July and August and then lead into the HSBC Asian sevens series commencing in September and ending mid November in time for the next Caltex League.
Doping
Of recent doping has been an issue that has arisen in the rugby circles of Sri Lanka starting even at the School level. Last season three players were issued IRB suspensions after testing positive for a banned substance.The players tested positive for a substance that is present in a supplement that is freely available in the market. According to the head of the SLRFU, The former committee of the Sri Lanka Anti-doping Association and Sports Ministry are responsible for this.
“All over the world the sports medicine unit of the ministry issues a list of supplements and substances that are banned. This list was not available to players and we can’t blame the boys for this”. Under Prof. Arjuna De Silva this matter has been addressed and such issues will be minimized.
Messed up Schools league
Unfortunately there are some issues that Seneviratne and his councilcannot solve as it is out of their grasp and that is the chaotic politics of theSchools league which has been plagued with court cases and hearingsmainly due to personal agendas. This is mainly due to the fact that theschools tournaments are not administered by rugby competent people.Seneviratne and his team have taken a gigantic step forward for rugby of SriLanka and now it’s up to all concerned parties to join hands, leave out the agendas and lend shoulder to resurrecting the sport we all love.
ThePapare.com wishes them well and as always will extend all support tohelp put Sri Lanka Rugby on the map.
