This year is turning out to be stale in terms of 7s rugby in Sri Lanka. With the much looked forward to Carlton 7’s tournament not taking place and the recently concluded Mercantile 7s and Dialog Club Rugby 7s not played out with much gusto, the exciting 7s format which was dubbed a Sri Lankan specialty seems to be losing its gloss.
Mercantile 7’s & Club 7’s
In the concluded Mercantile 7’s and the Dialog club rugby 7’s tournaments the competitiveness at the elite level was not top bracket although a few experienced players and few youngsters showcased their talents on an individual front.
It is a shame that there were only 5 teams in the cup segment of the Mercantile 7’s that was held a fortnight ago. Certainly, there were many more teams and more competitiveness in the arena 10 years ago in this particular tournament.
The same set of players played for different clubs last weekend as Kandy came out victorious in the Club 7’s tournament. Yet again only five teams, namely Kandy, Havelock’s, CR&FC, Navy and Police, were among the competitive teams. If you have been following rugby in Sri Lanka in the recent past, you may not have been surprised to see that the final was fought out between Kandy SC and The Havies.
Asian 7’s
Last year Sri Lanka played SIX 7’s tournaments before the first Asian 7’s series: Merc 7’s, club 7’s, Carlton 7’s (two local segments and two international segments). This had a big impact on the players in terms of match experience and keeping the much needed match fitness. It is not the same this year and some players are even seen patronizing ‘McDonalds’ before and after the tournaments as they are not heeding their diets too much.
Sri Lanka finished 3rd in 2013 and 4th in 2014 in the Asian 7’s series. The Tuskers are expected to finish in the 3rd or 4th position yet again. However a 5th or 6th ranking may not be a surprise.The first leg of the series will be played in China on the 5th & 6th of September, the second leg in Thailand on the 26th & 27th of September and the final leg will be played on the 10th & 11th of October in Colombo. If the Tuskers do not beat Korea, Hong Kong or Japan in the Asian series, the purpose of going for the Olympic qualifier in November this year will be lost.
Coaching Issue
Sri Lanka finished third under Ben Gollings and Nilfer Ibrahim but finished fourth under the Fiji legend Setefano Cakau in the circuit last year. Who is to blame for this downward trend? Coaches, players or administration? The SLRFU seems to have no structure in appointing a coach. A coach should be someone who has been following the local players and should possess a deep insight to their strengths and weaknesses. In the modern game even that is not enough, where emphasis also goes into researching on how the opposition teams play and to evaluating their pluses and minuses as well.
In a debatable move Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union has appointed Coach Collin Denish who was consultant coach to Science College, as the U 20’s national coach excluding Nilfer Ibrahim who led the Isipathana team to the triple crown last year, and guided them through this season where they finished as runners’ up in all three tournaments as well as winning the Under 20 Club 7s title.
That in itself highlights the poor structure of the process of selecting a coach by the governing body. Furthermore, with three weeks for the Asian 7’s there has been no appointment of a national coach as yet. On the other hand the Women’s national team is preparing well under Chandrishan Perera who helped the team to storm through the rankings from 13th position to 5th position in Asia. It is a sad factor that the women’s team has no sponsors but they look like a team who can qualify for the 2020 Olympics if there are enough funds and support to back them.
Where does the SLRFU stand?
Many pundits in the country and also some internationals like Phil Greening and Ben Gollings have mentioned that Sri Lanka needs to have a separate team for the shorter version of the game. They need to be nurtured and trained separately. Asanga Senevirathne president of SLRFU laid out some elaborate plans of having a scientific training centre and other amenities to take the game to the future. By the looks of things at present, it is highly doubtful that Sri Lanka will have this sort of structure even in the next 5 years.
Players like Srinath Sooriyabandara, Mithun Hapugoda and Vishvamithra Jayasinghe are more 7’s players than XV’s and there is no one to evaluate their playing and educate them on the mistakes that they make. This is critical, especially in 7’s rugby as there is a very fine line between winning and losing. There were so many good young players who displayed their talents at the club under 20’s so the governing body and its selectors should not be finding it difficult to create a separate pool for two formats.
Nineteen year old Shamri Burah, the Peterite, is an awesome talent and is capable of delivering the no- look pass like Pio Tuwai and the back flick pass like Quade Cooper, but where will this talent be in 5 years’ time?
With the inclusion of Rugby in the Olympics it is high time to implement a separate pool and work force to work towards being a competitive force in the World Arena. At the commonwealth games in Glasgow 2014, the Tuskers were hammered 62 – 07 by Australia and 57 – 00 by England but Sri Lanka could have beaten Papua New Guinea and Uganda instead they just fell short. Although Sri Lanka won against Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados, they still are not of a standard to beat Asian teams like South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.
During 2006 Hong Kong 7s Sri Lanka beat USA who is ranked higher for the first time. But USA went on to winning the London 7s this year showing they are already after the Olympic Gold in Rio. Carlin Isles perhaps the fastest in the 7s circuit was highlighted in the Carlton International 7s before he became a prominent figure in team USA.
It will all come down to the final episode of the sevens series which will be hosted at Race Course. It will be a first for Sri Lanka Rugby hosting a tournament of this magnitude but the real question that needs to be answered is whether the Fazil Marija led Sri Lankan team will live up to the expectations.
