Schools rugby league to be postponed?

By Shamseer Jaleel 

The much-awaited Inter-Schools ‘A’ Division Rugby Tournament, which is organised by the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA), was to commence on 25 February. However, speculation is rife that the tournament might get postponed to the end of March. 

SLSRA announced the respective groups and fixture dates in September 2016 for the 2017 season and all schools commenced training accordingly about five months ago, with the hiring of coaching staff also taking place late last year. 

Training is scheduled in keeping with the match dates and a sudden change of dates will certainly derail preparations for all teams. According to reliable sources, three leading Colombo schools are looking at a postponement citing the non-availability of grounds and referees and matches clashing with cricketing big matches. 

The actual reason behind this is that these three schools have recruited students from other schools and these players will not be able to meet the deadline to register for their teams until their G.C.E. O/L results are out, which will happen only in mid-March. 

Big match dates were well-known in advance and it was found that referees and grounds will be available as the schools tournament is scheduled to commence only after the completion of the club knockout tournament. 

All the other schools and the sports-loving public are expecting the SLSRFA to not give into political or any other pressure and commence the tournament as scheduled. 

Further, the much-awaited Clifford Cup knockout tournament too will commence soon after the completion of the league this weekend. In total there will be seven club matches up for a decision in the knockout tournament which is more than 100 years old. The competition will see three matches worked off in Kandy and the other four played in Colombo. These encounters will take place within the span of two weeks. 

But Sri Lanka Rugby is likely to stand by its decision not to postpone the event since the Sri Lanka Rugby calendar is already done and it suites the Asian Rugby events (Sevens and Fifteens) at the junior and senior levels.