CR Cop it at home as Navy sail past Kandy
Isat at CR hoping to see a repeat of the previous week's flowing Rugby, but was disappointed. I was seated next to a university don whose forte was English. The mistakes started with a rough authoritative announcement making a welcome to see “Epic Rugby in Proportions”. The don corrected, saying, “it should be Rugby in epic proportions”. The game turned out to be a tragedy of epic proportions .The adjective misplaced will be picked up by a few only. Rugby, that day, was full of missing points that glorifies the game: tackling, passing and running was woefully inadequate. Like the adjective, it will not be picked by those who are known to shout "offside", "forward" and "hey ref"!
Scrappy in greater proportions, more prone to niggling and directed to a brawl, was apparent. CR were taken by surprise, as Police offered stiff resistance and trite unlucky to lose by a point. With two matches of Round 1 left, and one against a lesser talented side, the Reds will remain in the first 6. The much talked of Aussie was seen a little bruised, having not done much. Most times he was seen in an offside position and running around looking out of sorts.
Navy maintained their unbeaten record beating Kandy in a better game that forced a second defeat on the League champs.The Cup at the end of the road is more visible to Havelock’s and Navy, even if one loses to the other in Round 1. A point of note in this match was that, there were no niggling requiring even the slightest attention of the referee. This was great, considering that Rugby is a game of physical contact, this game, at most times, was heated with close scores.
A sore point during the game was the man who kept yelling, making believe Kandy makes no mistakes and all infringements belong to the Navy. What was most disgusting was the liberal usage of ‘F...’ while seated in a place open to the cultured. Worse was, there were children alongside and below. Proves the point that a blazer and tie does not make a gentleman or a sportsman. An irritating call was his continuous shout that there is no “justice in this country”. This was whenever the match official made a call that was against his choice club or, when he perceived the referee did not see something. Rugby is a stop-start game and materiality in whistling is important or else, the game will be most stopped than started. If you think there is no justice in this country or, the game, then get back to where you came from. Probably, he should think of the way the Colonials behaved in 2006, when Lellani Scarlets handed a life ban to the 'fan' who confronted Jonah Lomu. Chief Executive Stuart Gallagher said he would not be welcome back, following his 'irresponsi- ble and unacceptably aggressive behavior. ‘This, club, he said, will simply not tolerate this sort of loutish behavior,’
Then again, the questions arise whether the heaps of shouting at match officials is self inflicted. A question arises when a referral not adequately interpreted is preceded by a Yellow Card post citing, and is correct. I contacted the CEO SLRFU to get confirmation that a Yellow Card was issued post citing. Having confirmed, he turned to his usual abusive talk, consistent with the uncouth SLRFU CEO who thinks he owns Rugby Sri Lanka.
While Rugby leads to the next round, it is difficult to understand the attempts to manipulate the laws and blame match officials. Feigning injury by front row players to delay starts is one that needs checking. It has to be punitive, particularly, when the front row forward is not needed at the time. If there is no doctor called and no visible hampering of the game, it should be play on and the player springs to his feet faster than Bolt getting off the blocks. Another is the feigning of vomit to ask for concussion bin. Then there was a case during the CR-Police match where a player came out for injury. The referee did not do a simple concussion test nor did he make a signal that he was sent to the concussion bin. Suddenly, a man whose hand is examined, becomes a concussion bin attendee. If the referee did not make the signal there is no C bin. The attempted assertion took time, as the referee had to say "No". Everybody then blames the referee for consulting the SO and the doctor, and sticking to his decision. The question more appropriate should be who did it wrong? Laws are made and interpretations directed for betterment of Rugby and safety of players. The concessions in various poses of the game should not be used to be manipulative, but to enhance the game. It is time people are familiar with the 2016 Law changes and particular to these incidents is FOUL PLAY Law 10.2 It is now explicitly illegal for a player to “simulate” that they been subject to any infringement at all, including (but not limited to) foul play (PK). Time to implement the laws and punish those who stimulate events and sometimes people may ask why the referee did that. It is to keep Rugby as the game it is intended to be. It is not Football.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB