The players making their way from the schools’ rugby league to the national pool are gradually reducing said the Minister of Sports, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and mentioned that he and his sports development division are on the lookout to improve this current system to nurture more prospective national players in time to come.
These words were expressed by the minister yesterday at the official launch of the Singer Schools’ Rugby League for the year 2017.
“We have to reconstruct the sports unit and bring in new people. There is a huge vacuum in the sportspersons emerging from the schools rugby division and we want more players to go further to finally play in the international level.”
The league tournament that officially kicked off in late February is nearing the conclusion of the first round and will recommence after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year for the second round. Currently the Group I B games have concluded and Trinity, S. Thomas’, Wesley and Zahira have qualified for the second round. The matches of the other group are yet to see completion.
Speaking at the press conference, advisor to the Minister of Education Sunil Jayaweera added that the effort that was taken by the then minister to inaugurate the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association has borne fruit over the past three decades.
“The Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association was established in the year 1988 when the current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was the Minister of Education. The association that started off with 50 members, now have over 200+ schools who are actively playing the sport across four divisions”
Empowering the schools league for the 15th successive year, Singer Sri Lanka will continue to build the schools rugby league as they have done in the past decade.
Speaking at the press conference, CEO of the Singer Group Asoka Pieris applauded the effort that was taken by their former chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya in joining ties with the schools rugby league way back in 2003.
“Even at tough times we have stood by the schools league uplifting the sport when needed. Specially in 2008 and in 2012/13 periods, Singer has continued their support for the rugby players”
