Sports

Sports

It’s the game that matters
By Vimal Perera
The start of the second round of the Caltex league has seen the two leading contenders CR & FC and Kandy Sports Club stamping on their superiority and pulling away from the pack with convincing wins over the weekend. It is but obvious that these two clubs are far head in performance and in the presenting a game that will have spectators satisfied.

The others fighting for the next available slots in the league are equally matched among themselves and in meeting each other the games are expected to be close. On Friday the 29th Navy beat Army sports club by a margin of three points. The rugby may not have reached high skill levels and or the fluency and continuity. Yet the game itself was evenly poised throughout giving some excitement to the crowd that was present. Navy Sports Club who has been reaching the stage of maturity in the league rankings will continue to spoil the aspirations of some of the clubs that will meet them from now on.

The week also saw the commencement of the school’s season where large crowds were seen for the key Schools games. The present format of the tournament being of the division 1 being broken into groups A, B, C & D, comprising of seven teams in each group. The grouping done on last years performance gives a better match of like vs like. All teams in their group being of equal strengths the games are more closely contested. The spectators see a match with rugby scores at the end of the day and not cricket scores. It also provides a better opportunity for the lesser known schools that have been beaten by huge margins by the fancied in the past. Now in each group teams have to perform to continue where they are as well as to climb to the next level.

It may be argued that since S. Thomas’ played Royal in their first match the format and draw is not a good one. The conclusion cannot be guided by emotions as the logic seems to be solid. In Group ‘A’ Kingswood were winners and Royal were runners up last year. STC were 5th with St Joseph’s 6th and St Peters 7th. The seventh having drawn a bye the first weeks games were 1st vs 6th and 2nd vs 5th and 3rd vs 4th. Similarly the Division two comprise of newcomer schools to the game.

“Rugby owes much of its appeal to the fact that it is played both to the letter and within the spirit of the laws of the game. The responsibility for ensuring that this happens lies not with one individual – it involves coaches, captains, players and referees.” Source the IRB playing charter.

During the first week of the schools calendar there was an incident of players going for each other as the match finished. The irony is that this is not the first time in the last three years players of this particular school have got involved in fisticuffs.

It is necessary for those involved to address this issue and study playing charter in full as the season begins. It is immaterial whether the incident happened before, during or after. The school concerned must look inwards for answers to the behavior of their charges. They must keep in mind that this is a sport with physical contact and emotions are involved. Despite the intense physical characteristic of the game greater camaraderie exists before and after the game. Enjoying each others company away from the pitch, in a social context remains the very core of the game.

The clubs have kept to this spirit and we have not heard of player or spectator violence so far. Therefore it is incumbent on those in charge to take notice as the junior in the game need guidance and not justification of there dastardly acts by the quote ‘if the referee was more strict on the field” this would not have happened. An interesting article I read recently was the paper presented, by Chandra Seneviratne,

On “The concept for two accredited referees to mange a game of rugby, along with the assistance of two touch judges”. This paper was presented to the Australian Rugby Union for their Level III program for Referee and Referee Coaches where one of the requirements is that each participant completes a major project. These ideas and concepts among others is bearing in mind that:

“The modern game has evolved into a professional sport, mixed with raw physical prowess and rugby skills, matched by strategies for attacking football. The game is faster, more fluid and more “watchable” than a generation ago and is nothing like it was 10 years ago. The 2003 World Cup revealed a game that had tremendous athleticism and great rugby skills. It was reported that the average ball-in-play time has increased from 41 per cent in to 44 per cent during the 2004 season, which equates to 35minutes a match. . This compares with the 25 minutes, which was the norm in the1991 World Cup.”

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