Walkouts and Violence

This weekend in Schools rugby was fantastic. From St. Joseph’s amazing win against Trinity to Kingswood’s triumph against favourites Peters, it was a topsy turvy weekend. It is a real shame therefore, that the gloss of those underdog victories had to be outshone by the pathetic goings on at Reid Avenue. 

More of that later. I like to stick to the rugby first.

Coming into the SJC v TCK game, I expected a pretty easy win for Trinity. But it seems like this Trinity team’s problem is more mental than anything else. They take things easy, and expect to win by turning up. Once they get rattled, and put under pressure, then things go downhill. And that is exactly what Joes did. They hit hard, they harried, they tackled aggressively, and ran the ball back with intent. 

The fact that Trinity kick away so much possession was not lost on Viper Guneratne and Jason Melder. And in Shamilka Kurumbalaptiya, Joes have probably the second best fullback in the competition, next to Tilina Wijesinghe of Dharmaraja. His positioning is often very good, and despite his pint size, Kurumbalapitiya’s willingness to run the ball back is impressive. He scored one try to add to Stephan Gregory’s to short range efforts to put Joes into an 18 – 10 lead and although Trinity fought back to 18-17 they were not able to get over the line.

Eventually, their luck had to run out. Trinity had been coming back game after game with late bursts. And although they were unbeaten, they did not look the dominant side that Dharmaraja looks. Relying on luck is never a good thing, and the determined Joes were a little more than Trinity bargained for. 

The Joes showed the sort of mongrel that Dhanushka ‘Gertha’ Perera, one of the best players produced by Joes, would have been proud of. Tariq Salieh got himself sent off stupidly, but before that he embodied the fighting spirit the Joes showed, to worry Tarindra Ratwatte and get in Trinity’s faces. To add to that, tiny Dulith Fernando, outdid his most experienced counterpart in controlling the game with his left boot. It was one of the best underdog efforts I’ve noticed.

It must be said that Trinity did not resort to name calling, or pushing and shoving after the game, nor did they point fingers at the refereee. It’s good that defeat can be taken with some dignity and hopefully that lesson will not be lost on other schools.

Kingswood also ran amok to score 41 points against a hapless Peters side, whose wheels seem to be falling off. The injury toll for the Peterites is rather high, and try as they might, they do not travel well. Anuradha Herath and Dilanka Perera could not do much in the face of some hard running by Kingswood, who have flattered to deceive so far. They have some big, strong, outside backs and should really be playing better rugby. Is it too little too late from them?

Wesley beat Science fairly comfortably. I expected this game to be close, but it ended up not being so. Science have fallen away a little although they have come close. But apart from Dharmapala and Costa, they do not have enough match winners in their ranks. Wesley have a number of excellent ball runners and against a team like Science they were always going to be a handful. 

Now we come to the real non – rugby problem.

I wasn’t at the game, but I have been told that Isipatana players had been so violent, that Royal had thought better of playing on, and walked off the field in protest. After the walking off, the referee had played on and Isipatana scored a try that gave them a 27 – 20 scoreline, although it is still unclear whether that scoreline will stand. 

If the violence was as bad and blatant as I’ve been told it was, then it should be a pretty simple matter of pointing it out to the Referees and the SLSRFA who should take action in that event. But having taken the extreme measure of walking, out it is absolutely imperative that Royal follow through with this. Else, they will become a laughing stock, and will be not better than the hooliganism that held up the Bradby last year, with Trinity making no credible attempt to prove their allegations of cheating.

Culpability as it maybe, pictures are scary, and to witness a player of any school bleeding from his eye is not fun. As rugby players we all had our nuts squeezed, we’ve been kicked, punched, raked, everything. But in all my years of playing rugby I’ve only been gouged once, and I stopped playing after that, because I got a cut in my eye that ripped my cornea and tore my contact lens into to. 

I still remember the ginger haired bastard that did it to me. 

It’s not acceptable. If you are a rugby player, do not cross the line with your opponent. Treat them the way you want to be treated. Hard, but fair. Aggressive but not malicious. Rugby is a man’s game. It is a shame that it is going the same way as politics.

In other happier news, Science College have banned a player and a couple of officials for a few weeks as a result of the fracas and intimidation which happened after the Peter’s game. This is a laudable effort, and Nazeem Mohamed and his team must be congratulated for taking action. Other schools too must investigate themselves and regulate themselves on matters of discipline. If we all did so, the authorities will not need to step in and ugly allegations will not have to be exchanged. 

At least Arsenal are fourth.