A shot in the arm for rugby referees
View(s):The Sri Lanka Society for Rugby Football Referees which was taken directly under the wing of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union and now headed by Chula Dharmadasa has finally found the magic formula to put the house in order.
At the recently concluded Council Members Meeting held at Longden Place, it was agreed upon by all members that they would go ahead with a structured programme that the SLRFU was presented by Kiwi rugby referee legend Garrath Williamson.
Williamson was in Colombo a few weeks back on the request of the SLRFU to officiate a few clubs games and incidentally had intimated his keenness to get involved in setting up a structured programme and streamlining this critical spoke in the wheel of rugby.The Referees Interim Committee will head this project with Williamson as their consultant and also provision has been made to advertise and recruit a full time Rugby Referees Manager who will play a key part in running the smooth day to day operations with all Chief Match Officials firmly in place to support the further development of rugby referees.
It was also intimated that the second round games will be officiated by local referees and foreign referees will be flown in only on a case by case basis.
Dinka Peiris, Anura Rankothge, Priyantha Gunaratne, D. Nimal and Irshad Cader are the five rugby local referees who will take up the whistle when the second round commences.
- MDF