Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society was formed in the year 1953 and Mr.C.A Cameron headed the first year. Initially it was under the SLRFU and in the early 80s they operated as a separate entity.
Since then, for the last 64 years Sri Lanka has produced some outstanding referees who have even gone to the iRB circuit. We had top referees like Malcom Wright, S.Sivendran, Archibald Perera, Mahesh Rodrigo, Lt.General Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Franky Huburt and Percy De Silva in the past. Not forgetting the greats like Nimal Lewke, R.Moosa, Tony Amith, Roshan Deen, S.W.Chang, Shamarath Fernando, Ravi Mendis, Nizam Jamaldeen Anil Jayasinghe, Vimal Perera, Wimal Senananayake and Orville Fernando who were some of the top referees in the 1980’s and 1990s.
Since Dilroy Fernando and Aruna Jayasekara decided to hang his whistle from the game 2 years ago, the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society presently have got a very few top qualified referees like Irshad Cader, D.Nimal, Dinka Pieris, Aruna Rankoth, Priyantha Gunerathne, Gamini Indrasena and Pradeep Fernando to blow the top level schools or club games while the youngest referee to officiate a Bradby Dimithra Gunasekara migrated to New Zealand end of 2015.
Most of the above referees have played the game in schools, clubs and some in the national level. However this is not a qualification to become a top referee, but would have been pathway for some of them to give something back to the game.
Rugby back in the day was honorary job rather than making money simply because you loved the game and did it purely for passion. However this is not the case now in Sri Lanka as all the referees get paid a decent quota per game including the ARs. But does this happen in other countries ?
The UAE Rugby Referees Society who controls the GCC schools and Club rugby games which I was a member of for few years, do not pay their referees for officiating games. However if you are traveling outside the country to officiate games, they only reimburse your air tickets, visa and taxi fees. There is not a single cent paid extra for refereeing the games. The UAERRS has many expats including English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Europeans, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders and few Sri Lankans as well. All of them do refereeing only as a passion. Some of my friends in Sri Lanka have also asked me whether we are attracting the right people to referee ? That’s a tough question to answer as some might join because they love the game and for some it may be help to give them an extra income. However the biggest question is not about the payments, but attracting new talent to come join the union to take the whistle.
During a school or club season in Sri Lanka, there are many games played almost on all weekends. When there are top games happening, the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society is facing a daunting task to assign referees for all games. That’s a referee, 2 Assistant Referees (ARs) and two ARs to handle the reserves, Sin Bins and to keep time at the desk. That’s a total of 6 officials per game.
There were instances that some of the clubs and schools were complaining about the referees appointed and blaming them if the team loses the games too. This resulted in flying down referees from Singapore and Dubai to officiate some of the club games last season. The Clubs argument was that they spend a couple of million rupees per season for nutrition, coaches and players and don’t want lose games due to a mistake by the referee. I am sure all these people who complain also remember that famous French try vs the All Blacks in the 2007 world cup or even that Penalty offered to Australia vs Scotland in the 2015 RWC Semi Final. End of the day all referees are human and what the respective rugby unions are trying to do is to give more and more professional training to make the mistakes minimum.
Now where do you stand as a spectator in a crunch game ?
All spectators want their team to win and they want the referee plus the ARs to handle the game well without a single mistake. Even when a genuine mistake happens, the crowd goes….
“Refa Hora“,
“As Pottada? “,
“Keeyak Dunna da?”.
Sometimes the Sri Lankan referees also get assaulted by the old boys, supporters and even by the players after the games. If you were the referee at the receiving end, what would you do if you have done your best in that game ?
The spectators nowadays are quite knowledgeable about the laws of the game. But there is always a set of people who would shout at the referees / match officials’ for every time they blow a whistle against their team. I have seen the spectators of some schools who are standing in the side lines in the 22 of the near end screaming “LINE OFF SIDE! LINE OFF SIDE !” while the play is happening inside the 22 of the far end. Then the whole crowd goes wild with the flow. Now how do you see that the line is offside from this side? Is that funny enough to explain the calibre of some spectators we have in Sri Lanka.
FYI, a Basketball game is played in court size of 28 m x 15 m. They have two referees to control a game which is played by 10 players at a given time. Rugby is played in a pitch the size of 100 m and 70 m and one referee have to control 30 players with two ARs. I am not here to say that refereeing Basketball is easy. However to show a clear comparison see the task of a rugby referee.
In a recent press release by the SLRFU, it was revealed that over 40% of our total referees are aged 38 years and above. 90% of our A & B Panel referees are aged 38 plus. 60% of these are aged 40 plus. Unless we recruit good young men into refereeing, we risk of have no referees within 5 years. They also stressed that only 20% of the school boys continue to play club rugby which is very sad to see.
On numerous occasions the SLRFU have requested the schools to provide them with individuals who would like to take the whistle and even have gone to the extent of requesting and maybe now, forcing them to find their own School boys to referee their junior games (U10-U14). They recently hired the former iRB referee Garratt Williamson as a consultant to improve the Sri Lankan referees.
The SLRFU is now desperately wanting to invest on some young talent to take the game forward as referees. They are inviting anyone who has passion to come and take the whistle and you don’t need to be a past rugby player to be a Referee. But if you are think that you know the rules and confident that you can control the game with the right attitude allowing the game to flow smoothly, you can be the next referee to join the team.
Come join the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society to save the game we all love !
