Another crack at our Sevens rugby in Incheon
View(s):The Sevens as I said last week showed that we can match the better teams of Asia in open play. That can be fruitful only and when we have the ball with us. Play at the breakdown and in ball retention is areas that Sri Lanka has to improve to get ahead. Sri Lanka would be facing another opportunity at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea where a prospect of a medal looms high. The deciding factor would be winning and 
retention of the ball from and after the breakdown.
There is so much of schools rugby that is played in Sri Lanka with a huge involvement. Why is it that we fail when the skills are challenged? I happened to watch a few matches of the Schools Under-18 tournament which was well attended and fought hard as many were commenting. While games were close calls and played hard, lack of a structure in the approach as well as bad handling and the number of penalties was a distraction to term what I would call good rugby.
The test is the week from this Sunday to next Saturday when the Asian Under-20 tournament which is also a qualifier for the Junior World Rugby Tournament is played in Sri Lanka. As Japan has already qualified for the JWRT the teams that will take part include Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Korea with Sri Lanka as hosts.
The tournament kicks off on Sunday at 1.45pm local time with Chinese Taipei taking on Hong Kong at while Korea will play Sri Lanka at 4.30pm. On the Wednesday (24) it will be Korea and Chinese Taipei while Sri Lanka plays Hong Kong in the second match. The last two matches will be on Saturday (27) and Sri Lanka will play Chinese Taipei in the first match and Korea takes on Hong Kong in the last match. It will be an interesting week of rugby as the better junior teams of Asia are battling out for a spot in the JWRT.
The test for Sri Lanka is to gauge its performance against other teams in Asia. No doubt we are happy the way rugby is providing entertainment in the games among schools. If we are to be satisfied with the entertainment and believe that we are playing good rugby it is good. The people come in numbers to see schools playing rugby is because they feel there is value. The potential is there but a question is whether we are optimising and are ready to face the challenge outside the shores of Sri Lanka.
The future of the game is with the schoolboys and the benchmark of success is when you are playing against similar age group players outside your country. To excel at this level and be the input for national rugby requires a strategy where the school section and the governing body will work to achieve the goal of a better place in international rugby.
At the moment both arms are working towards this running in the same direction. But they are like two railway lines going in the same direction but never meet. The end achievement will only serve national rugby if the good work results in development of skills, cater to the demand to play a physical game, and to be mentally tough in order to win. This requires coaches, trainers as well as motivators.
That is an input the SLRFU can make as they have educators accredited by the IRB which is result of the work done by the governing body. Organising the schoolboys and providing the raw material is a field that is in the control of the school which is organised through the school section for rugby. The game to reach a level of providing skilled players needs guided coaching.
Currently it is a matter that anybody can coach and some of them are not imparting the required knowledge at the junior level. The win mentality is still in place even at junior levels where skills and the feel of the game does not take the top most preferred slot. I watched some players who had played at Under-14, playing for the Under-16 in the following week. Giving little time for the young bones to recover while exposing them to a different age group where the development of the structure is of a tougher mould. The argument handed out is that we need to win games to get more boys to play rugby. This should not be the objective and the only way this can be handled is by educating the relevant parties on the ‘Long Term Player Development Programmes’ that is a part of the world governing body material to spread the game. The task is to work to uplift the skills and a job for the local governing body while the school has to be involved in providing material and organisation. It is simply a case of management and operational activity of the development of the game.
It is indeed sad that players and young school leavers now in the big league are tested positive for taking banned substances. This is a matter of education which otherwise will grip the game as the people who matter will think twice before allowing their children to be involved.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB