Lankan Rugby a nine-day wonder that keeps repeating itself
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The Third Leg of the Asian 7s Series will be held in Colombo next month
Rip Van Winkle is the fellow who fell asleep and awoke decade later, with a long beard and tattered clothes. One minute he was a young man, and what seems to him a few hours later, he’s ancient! Psychologists believe that, something like that happens to us as we get older. Time seems to fly by ever more quickly the older you get.
A grandfather of 80 once told me, “It seems like only yesterday I was 18!”
So, like Rip Van Winkle, when we are older, we suddenly “wake up” and realize that it seems like only a short while ago that we were young or, that it was a short time ago that we were bad, but now we are good. As we age and get into routines, we do the same things over and over and do not store vivid memories of repeated events, so time seems to fly by.
Think about the first time you went for a Rugby match which brings back vivid memories. But, as you continue going for matches, events do not make lasting impressions. It is just that things do not register as much as it should. That probably makes some in the game believe they are doing well and fall into a sort of “cuckoo’s nest.”
As a Rugby enthusiast, how do you avoid feeling like Rip Van Winkle? The numbers at School Rugby will make most believe we are on an electric track, when we are on a highway to nowhere. The sports law permits people in all sports to stay in office for many years and when they end up in whatever chair they head, they have already been in the system for over a decade. They don’t feel that time has flown, but there is nothing we have done, but may be having been a curse to people you may not like. What new experience comes to the sport to get out of routines of sitting in virtually around the same table though in different chairs?
Every season it may be a new beginning, but in 2 to 3 weeks it is about the same Rugby that we have seen, with little of high performance. The School Rugby Season is almost 4 months ahead. The schools have begun practices because the passion is out there and people want action, and a lot is spent. The club season is around the corner, but what is the commitment of numbers you see on the paddock. Time flies as the top structure seems more disorganized, but we plan the future with comments that want to take Rugby to the level of being the top team in Asia. Is the Van Winkle effect a reality as we keep talking?
We have, through the years, heard complaints about referees, while they still go on as the short fuse is dampened. The routine gets accepted as we see and time flies, and the season is over. Then the next season starts with hope and hopefully, new impressions will be built to memory more in school Rugby, as new players take the field and a new bunch of parents and relatives see a difference. The perception is what takes over, as people seem happy.
I was thinking of Rip Van Winkle and whether the spectator has fallen asleep and or, got up with a memory loss. No, I thought may be in the period of hibernation from last school season, the spectator has realized during the snooze that we have a wonderful lot of referees and why are we shouting at them. They officiate at many matches during the school season. They have the ability to withstand the pressure and officiate whatever the tournament is in Asia. That is because the experience they get is not what you can have anywhere in Asia. Everybody in Rugby breathes fire down their necks. In addition to the verbal abuse, there is physical abuse at times, which they willingly accept in the course of their duties. They are volunteers in that sense and should be treated well. With all that, they do a job which others won’t try.
This is not what I say, but what a person has written to Asian Authorities, asking them to appoint 4 Referees from Sri Lanka for the Asian 7s Series 3rd Leg to be played in Colombo, in a few weeks. The doc is spreading like dengue.
The argument is as above and that, local Referees who have been through many trials and tribulations, know to handle pressure, have done a good job and deserve to be recognised. I have no hesitation in endorsing the sentiments of the almost unknown spectator “ Nuwan Perera.”
Yet, it keeps my mind wondering to ask can this be true. Because, every day, I heard abuse and insult hurled at the Referees.
May be it is a case of a monkey disguised as a donkey, writing to praise the tail of the monkey. Or, is it a manifestation of the culture of canvassing to get to where we cannot be, unless with a push. The appointment of Referees to the 7s has been from the Asian Panel and done a few weeks ago, and published. The sucking appears to be a little too late.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, Coach and an Accredited Referees’ Evaluator IRB