Corporal Punishment has no place in school sports
There is a debate on the act of physical assault on a Rugby player, on the basis that it is an internal issue or, the premise that the World Rugby (WR) Code should not be applicable in this case. Well, what would happen if the flow of funds from WR or the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) were to be closed, if we do not look at governance, when they ask.
The benefactors of School Rugby are asking for foreign Referees for key games. A key observation by a Coach was the attitude of a Referee, who is also a senior member in the hierarchy, is one of torture. A Lawyer- parent asked me why he seems so angry when he talks to schoolboys. When players look at each other they don’t seem to spew venom. But, he said, this Referee does. Probably because he is a good distance away from the ball and he penalises the second. The abusive attitude, he opined, is how he compensates when the mistake is pointed out.
Having said that, I also thought the comments of Dr. Tara de Mel, a former Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Good Governance advocate speaking to the Daily Financial Times in November 2018, is food for thought.
“Physical violence and emotional trauma inflicted on children in their formative years, have major detrimental sequences in their adult life. In addition to visible physical wounds, the ‘ invisible’ mental/ emotional ‘scars’ are carried by the victim for very long. Credible research has shown how child victims of corporal punishment and those who have been abused as children, end up as violent adults, perpetrating violence on peers or their spouses, or colleagues at work. So the abused becomes the abuser”.
The slap is justified by some because the boy kicked a player on the ground. What if the behavior of the player arises from what he gets when he makes a mistake? The abused becomes the abuser.
Psychology ' Health and Medicine' in 2017, on the global perspective of corporal punishment, suggests that 128 counties don’t allow corporal punishment, while 69 (35%) do allow. It is banned in all of Europe and most of South America and East Asia. Three industrialized countries are outliers that continue to allow school corporal punishment- Australia, the Republic of South Korea, and the United States. In Australia, school corporal punishment is banned in 5 of its 8 states and territories, while in the United States it is banned in 31 of the 50 states.
Corporal Punishment is banned in Uganda too. The Global Journal of Human Social Science published a research titled: 'Alternatives to Instilling Discipline in Primary Schools', during the Post-Corporal Punishment Era in Uganda.
When nobody wants to play small in School Rugby and the passion is intense and laced with irrational behavior, there will be the advocates of violence.
The end is justified by whatever means when winning a trophy is success, forgetting that it only builds ego. Coaches as well as players are under pressure. The pressure does not end. The match officials will also be at the receiving end. People believe that long hours of practice, including making body builders of players and physical pressure, will produce results.
Besides the slaps, the talk is about the employment of foreigners to officiate in the Clubs' Super Round and the Knockout. Sri Lanka Rugby has accepted the pressure exerted by the stakeholders, virtually declaring local Referees not good for local Rugby.
With 12 Top Division school games a week, there is no doubt that local Referees are wanted. The question is whether that is what you need. “Wants" are what you desire to have, whether or not they carry any value. Whereas "needs" are things which you must have to live or, to do or, achieve something. The tipsy feeling is that the need is not satisfied, though the game gets what is wants.
People say, "We spend so much and one whistle makes us losers." Coaches whose bread and butter depends on performance say, "It is unfair when young boys practice so much and the Referee makes a mistake -- players are demoralised. This is 'Ad nauseam', a sympathy card to cover their bottoms. But the issue is when you leave room for pointed fingers.
Never before has there been a greater rejection of the Referees' Society, which has a history 65 years. The rebuff continues, as many of the club Coaches who have shown dissatisfaction of the local match officials, are also coaching schools. With apologies to the original lyrics, it sounds like “The party was nice, the party was pumping and everybody having a ball, I hear a woman shout out! Who let the dogs out Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof ?"
The grumbling started in the first week. One school voicing sentiment says they lost the League in the first week. A possible knock- forward and, or an accidental obstruction, not seen, ended in a try that changed the result. What irks them most is the comment of the reviewer who says must see the video, when it happened almost under his nose. Probably, the Referee did not see, and that is a possibility.
In another game, the non-excusable call was for a free kick against the throwing side, for numbers in a line-out. If you use a modus operandi for guidance, don’t make it a law, but manage. Taking the cake, probably iced in arrogance, was asking a captain to advise the spectators on the law of “cannot come up until the line out is over”. Onfield presentation of a Referee will compensate, even if mistakes happen. When your actions look comic, there is no acceptance.
A puppeteer who wants to justify the mistakes of local Referees, commenting after the Havelock’s-Kandy match, said that, there was much the foreign Referee missed. Probed, he said that high tackles were missed, so the Referee missed? Did the Assistant Referee see anything to flag or, was there a citing report. The answer being none, probably, there was nothing of significance. The musketeers running the show for Referees need to understand that you cannot continue after the best, before the day has expired. But they continue on the shelf for more, as it satisfies a want, not a need.
The latest sobriquet in social media describing the dominant musketeers is to call them “Nero” a la fiddling while Rome is burning.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, Coach and an Accredited Referees'
Evaluator IRB