By A Special Sports Correspondent

There is trouble brewing for the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) ahead of the much looked forward to under 19 ‘Elite’ Schools Rugby Sevens because several schools are reported to make themselves unavailable for the two- day competition.

There are several pros and cons to this issue of non-availability of teams. But what should be underscored is that all schools must remember one valuable dictum that even those participating at The Olympics honour; which is ‘participating is more important than winning’. At the time of writing as many as 10 schools have given enough signs that they’ll not be taking part in the competition citing the upcoming O’ Level Exam and also injuries to key players.

One must remember that those who pull out of the competition will be labeled as spoilers. This attitude of pulling out or boycotting a tournament, when at school level, sparks the attitude in individuals to go against a system or be selfish. Are these schools which are struggling to field their best team for the schools rugby sevens giving the message that they don’t have a second-string outfit or junior team in their ranks and are bankrupt for players?

The good news for rugby fans is that the top teams which dazzled at the recently concluded Zahira Centenary Sevens have made themselves available for the tournament which will be worked off at the Royal Sports Complex and CR&FC, according to media reports. St. Peter’s, which won the Cup Championship at the Zahira Sevens, are slotted in with Maliyadeva Kurunegala in group ‘H’ while Isipatana College, which finished as runners-up in that tournament, are pooled in group ‘A’ with St. Benedict’s College. Royal College which won the Plate Championship at the Zahira Sevens are slotted in with Carey and Nalanda in group ‘D’. If some of the popular rugby playing schools opt to pull out then it would leave the doors open for lesser-known rugby playing schools to fill the voids and ensure that the ‘tournament goes on’.

One little error in calculation that is troubling this tournament is the scheduling of the Zahira Sevens too close to the Elite schools rugby sevens. You cannot possibly ask schools to play back-to-back sevens tournaments with just a few days of rest between tournaments. Injuries to players are a key concern for school rugby teams and don’t forget that there is a league tournament – where the stakes are so high- also on the cards and scheduled to commence in June this year. This writer can say so because the Zahira Sevens was conducted with the blessings of the SLSRFA; the rugby authority that draws up the school rugby calendar for the year. The Zahira Sevens was conducted on March 2 and 3 in Colombo with the participation of the best 16 schools teams in the island. There is a school of thought that having two fiercely competitive school rugby sevens tournaments too close to each other is not a good idea and will drain the players of their energies.

Much money and time are invested on school rugby and to prepare the players for traditional and tournament matches. Also, one must remember that the schools 15-a-side season has two tournaments which is followed by trials to select a team for the junior Asian Championship. Schoolboys have to also balance their education with sports. All that must be achieved while in school; before these boys reach the age 21. There are also schoolboys who take part in more than one sport and also dabble in activities outside sports. Some also have dreams of entering university and a handful have to satisfy goals of parents; individuals who want to live their dreams through their children. Hence the pressure on children who do sports and studies can build up to reach breaking point in an individual.

School rugby is so commercialized these days. Just look at the attire of a school rugby player and observe the number of logos of various sponsors stitched to the playing garment. Then there must be the expectations of sponsors too!

This flooding of sponsors to school rugby can throw out existing traditions. No one talks about the Philip Buultjens Trophy which was on offer for the schools rugby sevens winners. Do the school authorities still keep this trophy on display at this tournament and award it to the winners? So many companies engaged in the communication business are involved in rugby and they have their own trophies which they wish to see been given away to winners at the podium. For the record the Philip Buultjens Trophy was first on offer at the schools rugby tournament in 1975 and Trinity led by Rohan Sourjah won that tournament beating Royal 18-16 in the final. Just to talk about endurancein players of those days, the Trinity side was represented by the same seven players during the entire tournament; meaning the reserves were never used. (This information was taken from NeilWijeratne’s well compiled book titled ‘Sevens Saga’).

School rugby at present is thriving thanks to the support of old boys and sponsors. The SLSRFA must be thankful for that. This is because the schools section of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) is neither known to have the acumen to handle a complicated sport like rugby nor has it the connections to raise much needed funds for the game.

Many years ago, when the SLSRFA was run by able men like Lal Kumarasinghe (President) and Mohammed Zainudeen (Secretary) the schools tournaments were run with the precision of Swiss watches. Kumarasinghe would handle the tournament desk at schools tournaments by himself. He passed away in 1999. Those were the years of schools rugby and trouble makers were punished then and there with no favors granted because of school or family ties. But still there were politics involved in school rugby even then; especially when the SLR got involved in school rugby on occasions when a national team had to be selected for an overseas tournament.

In the year 1988 SLR received an invitation to compile a school side to contest the Roslyn Park Sevens in England. The team from Sri Lanka comprised Lasitha Guneratne (Captain), Sudesh. Abeysinghe, Asoka Jayasena, Rizwi Suhyb, Bindu Dandeniya, Thakshila Hettiarachchi, M.Thaam, Ruwan Ranasinghe, Hilmy Saheed and Rohan Ranarajah. The selection trials for this tour were conducted in March 1988 and there were disputes regarding who should be coach. After that tour, the inter-school rugby sevens, worked out in August that year, produced an invincible champion side in Kingswood. Sadly, none of the players from the champion Kingswood team got the opportunity to be included in this tour; hence their potential remained untapped from the perspective of being members of the junior national sevens team.

Times have changed and when a tournament uses the name ‘Elite’ sevens one cannot possibly expected a person like Philip Buultjens (A versatile sportsman produced by St. Anthony’s Katugastota) to be remembered in rugby these days. The same can be said about Noel Gratiaen; in whose name the Gratiaen Cup was awarded to the winners of the game between Colombo Schools and Outstation Schools. Gratiaen was a lawyer and also held post of President of SLR in the years 1948 and 1950. People with authority prefer to associate names of mobile phone companies with sports events of today and conveniently forget about our rugby legends.

Coming back to the upcoming Schools Elite sevens the rugby fraternity hopes that most of the team’s that are experiencing the unavailability of players will put their ‘houses’ in order and live up to the spirit of sportsmanship. This April is the time for both the New Year and annual traditional games. A well- conducted rugby event can add to the glamour of the festive season.