Who should run school’s rugby?

The Minister of Sports last week revealed that he has instructed the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) to take charge of the Under-20 Schools League Rugby Championship from next season. This he said is mainly with intentions of putting a halt to amat

This is not practical. School competitions should be governed and run by relevant school associations. We have seen such incidents in the past but they have been proved as failures. The national governing bodies coming in to the schools will not help any problem solve. But if these two parties could get together and work for a good plan, it could be a successful exercise. One or two problems may come and go but just because of that totally changing the responsibility is not a suitable answer. For example for Olympics, the National Olympic Committee of a country plays a main role, not the Ministry of Sports. Likewise the Ministry of Education should be fully in charge of school sports activities, not the Ministry of Sports. I think the Sports Ministry should be directly working with national bodies and that will be sufficient.

Ihappen to meet the Minister of Sports and some top SLRFU officials few days back and this was a sudden topic that came up during that meeting. We all had a healthy discussion on this matter and it was decided that the SLRFU, SLSRFA and Minister of Sports should meet for an official sitting to take a vital decision on this matter. My view is that school sports should be governed by school bodies, not the parent bodies. If this happens it will be an act against the regulations of the Ministry of Education. Not all think this is a good thing, only a few favour this move. I think the parent bodies and the schools sections should not work opposing, if these two parties could work in cohesion, I think it, itself will be the most suitable thing for all these prob

lems."

AAs a coach, my view is if the tournament is well conducted, no matter who does it, there is no problem. There are no places you could find perfect, everyone has their plusses and minuses. Rugby in Sri Lanka is over 100 years now but where are we globally and regionally. Japan is the top rugby-playing nation in Asia at the moment. Hong Kong and Korea may swap the second and third places every now and then and as a result Sri Lanka is always in the fourth or fifth in the Asian rankings. I was part of the SLRFU Rugby Development Programme, but nothing was sustainable and eventually no development has taken place.

Funds received from the global and regional bodies were drafted to other purposes as far as I remember. Some years ago cricketers came only from leading schools from Colombo and Kandy but today it's the other way around and most players to reach the international stage are from the outstations, which means the game has spread. But in rugby, good players are still coming out from the leading schools, not the lesser-known ones. While cricket spreads around the country rugby is still stagnating. So whoever conducts a tournament, will not make any different."