Sunday Dec 29, 2024
Sunday Dec 29, 2024
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 There is a very unhealthy culture that has been created at Royal Rugby which has at its core, a complete disregard for the welfare of the student players, a win at all (health and human) cost attitude and worse, a practice of thuggery and violence inflicted on some players, as part of the team management process, utilising a goon squad of young old boys
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The father of the 2022 Rugby Season Captain of Royal College has spoken out against assault on his son as well what he describes as “systematic student player abuse.”
The father Harim Peiris has written to Royal College Principal Thilak Wathuhewa with a copy to the media recounting the ordeal experienced by his son as well as fellow players. Peiris’ action follows Daily FT expose on 1 October where a group of concerned parents wrote to Principal about fear unleashed among players and other bad practices and calling for the removal of Rugby Head Coach Dushanth Lewke. See https://www.ft.lk/sports/Parents-demand-removal-of-Royal-College-Rugby-Head-Coach/23-767379
Peiris says in his letter that Royal College rugby players are sustaining crippling, career ending and life-long injuries, never at league or trophy matches but rather their injuries are through over training. He also alleged gross student player abuse, reckless and callous disregard for player safety and gross violations of IRB player welfare and safety standards.
Via the letter Royal College Principal has been urged to take “the long overdue remedial measures to reform Royal rugby, with all necessary measures, including the obvious personnel changes required” and says failure would be a grave dereliction of duty and would no doubt compel newly elected education authorities to intervene more directly to rectify matters.
Following is the full text of the letter.
My son represented Royal rugby for a decade from Under 10 through 1st XV, being appointed Season Captain for 2022.
My attention has been drawn to recent press reports and specifically to the Daily FT of 1 October 2024 detailing out various issues by parents of the rugby squad of 2024. I find myself in agreement with the views set out by the said parents and further to my prior correspondence write again to express serious concerns regarding Royal Rugby, for your attention and necessary remedial action.
Royal College rugby players are sustaining crippling, career ending and life-long injuries, never at league or trophy matches which are supervised by officials and played according to IRB rules but rather their injuries are through over training and at Royal College team “practice sessions” with “invited opposition and old boys.”
Foreign coaches who have observed Royal Rugby have indicated that not even their professional teams are trained in this manner, practically five days a week. Performance anxiety seems to drive the coaching staff. Consequently Royal rugby players no longer enjoy the game. On the contrary they just endure it.
Regarding the reckless and hard training referred to by the parents of 2024, meted out to Royal players, you are no doubt aware of the case of Chamod Kavindu, the hooker of the 2019 squad, who had brain surgery, and a part of his skull removed and replaced with a titanium plate, through an injury sustained at pre-season practice at the Royal College Sports Complex against “invited” security forces opposition. To date he requires treatment and the Head Coach’s response has been to block his phone number. A discarded human wreckage. Playing schoolboys against full grown heavier men, is discouraged by the IRB, especially in the forward’s play. The International Rugby Board (IRB)’s excellent player safety guidelines are generally observed in the breech at Royal Rugby, including mandatory mouth guards and having a standby ambulance or at least a designated vehicle to take injured players for treatment, during these “practices” which are much riskier than matches and where all serious injuries occur. Other injuries including stress fractures are through over training.
There is a very unhealthy culture that has been created at Royal Rugby which has at its core, a complete disregard for the welfare of the student players, a win at all (health and human) cost attitude and worse, a practice of thuggery and violence inflicted on some players, as part of the team management process, utilising a goon squad of young old boys, including the youngest Advisory Committee member. There are terrible consequences at Royal for losing a match. My son as Captain was assaulted in the Royal College Sports Complex dressing room by these “invited old boys/goon squad” after the first league match defeat of 2022, instigated by an Advisory Committee member, with the connivance of the Head Coach, resulting in head injuries to my son, including concussion and a ruptured ear drum. The response of team management was to try and cover up the assault. It was the independent medical examination which revealed the severe blunt force trauma to his head. The experience during the rest of the season was no better and regrettably no remedial action nor preventive measures were taken.
Last year in 2023, a group of parents of junior players raised similar concerns of player abuse, assaults and violence against their sons and many junior players left the squad. Now in 2024, parents have again at the end of the season, highlighted similar concerns.
All these instances from 2019 through the present, create a clear pattern of systematic gross student player abuse, a reckless and callous disregard for player safety and gross violations of IRB player welfare and safety standards. Adult professional players would not tolerate such treatment and on the contrary Royal rugby players are schoolboys, students playing for their school, amateur athletes playing for love of the sport.
You may be kept in the dark by the team management, which practices a culture of intimidation to silence critics, that many Royal rugby players display serious symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including nightmares, sleep disorders, acute anxiety, and panic attacks. This is one reason for the 2024 parents requesting psychological counselling assistance for their children.
Sadly the Royal College OBU Rugby Advisory Committee and the coterie which controls it as their personal fiefdom, has been a serious part of the problem. They have seen fit to deny reality, defend the indefensible, sweep the human costs of their practices under the carpet, gloss over flagrant student abuse and cover up all wrongdoing by team management / coaching staff. One ready excuse has been the absence of CCTV cameras at the Royal College Sports Complex. A strange omission for a school that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of technology and a rugby program which is certainly not short of money.
It is very clear that this situation did not evolve by itself accidently but was created and nurtured by the team management headed by Head Coach, Dushanth Lewke. It is doubtful if he would be ever willing or able to oversee the reform of a culture of abuse that he has nurtured and developed at Royal Rugby. But the systemic player abuse at Royal rugby must come to an end. Retaining a foreign head coach, with actual team management authority, would change Royal Rugby immensely for the better.
I am writing to you as the Head of the great institution of Royal College, to take the long overdue remedial measures to reform Royal rugby, with all necessary measures, including the obvious personnel changes required. To fail to address these issues would be a grave dereliction of duty and would no doubt compel the newly elected education authorities to intervene more directly to rectify matters, sooner rather than later.
I am also reluctantly compelled to make this an open letter, (via the print media) for the following reasons.
(i) The parents of the current (2024) 1st XV rugby team have gone public with their concerns and I stand with my fellow parents in their decision to do so. These matters are therefore now already in the public realm.
(ii) The past two years have only witnessed a further deterioration in the situation at Royal Rugby.
(iii) But most importantly, putting an end to abuse at Royal Rugby, as indeed anywhere else, requires that which is done under a cloak of secrecy, to be first exposed and subject to scrutiny, debate and discussion. Which has now occurred.
My very best wishes to you in dealing with the challenges of reforming Royal Rugby.
“Floreat!”
Lukewarm response from Royal College to complaint of assault on Rugby Captain in 2022
Parent Harim Peiris’s complaint to Royal College administration over the assault of his son Harshith causing grievous hurt in 2022 only elicited a reply in April 2024, the Daily FT learns.
In response to the complaint made in July 2022, Peiris got a lukewarm response from Royal College Principal T. Wathuhewa.
Claiming the College did an inquiry, the Principal said the Disciplinary Committee after a lengthy inquiry conducted over 13 months made necessary determinations. The action involved suspending the RCU membership of one person alleged to have been involved in the attack of the student player for 10 years and issuance of severe warning to another.
