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| Saturday, 1 May 2004 |
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The Caltex Rugby Tournament 2004 kicks off Readers must have wondered the absence of my column over the last three weeks. Since the season of holidays and the General Elections would have kept most of us at home I decided that I must earn my bread and butter and that the best would be to travel to china to see what new marvels they have for us. To cut a long story short I was back in time for the kick off. What augurs well this season is that all the clubs that are participating will have foreigners except the Old Zahirians and Navy. I am happy that this has materialised. If readers can remember I wrote on this and exhorted the powers to be - the Police and the Armed Services to take a positive step on this issue. Thank you for doing it. We will now see interesting rugby as the season matures. Of last weeks games the only one that I fancied to give me some thrill was the Havelock Police game. speculated it did happen that way. All the other games were too lop sided to be of any significance. Kandy amassed a record score of 141 points against the Zahirians. Kandy's bonus points alone will be unassailable for any challenger to the finishing line. Army too had a grand game against the Navy. The score here again was tilted to the Army at 33/5 points. Navy still has to enlist the foreigners and no sooner, they have them I am sure that this team will create upsets against the better teams. Why I am making this speculative statement is because last years Navy side only needed intelligent leadership. The Navy is a very fit lot and no second to the Army. The CR & FC too cruised to an easy win 50/7 points. I am informed from my intelligence sources that the CR & FC has been in serious training for the last three months and from the outward appearance of the players it is reckoned that they will be very much in the fray to winning the Title. The CH & FC was bereft of a game as Kandy Youth Club withdrew from the competition due to lack of funds. It is sad that this very young club kept advising the Union of their participation until the last moment. if they were short of funds and had approached their Provincial Union with their problem. I am sure that through the Provincial Union they would have had some financial blessing from the SLRFU. After all what is the Development fund for? From all accounts, there is a feeling that the teams that will top the first four will be Kandy Sports Club, the Army, CR & FC and the Police. Battling for the rest will the Havelock Sports Club, Navy and Air Force. Unless there are upsets which can very well be from the Navy and the Air Force I can see no tangible change in the order of merit. A lot of money is being spent and will be spent to satisfy the craving of hungry spectators. How this will affect our International Standard is another poser for our Union Administrators. However, this should not affect the local tournament in any way as all clubs get into the swing of enjoying the local rugby. My weekends leisure was spent on Saturday at the Havelock Sports Grounds watching Havelocks play against the Police. Mahinda Jayawardena the honoray ground secretary was a worried man as the ground that had received a heavy dose of coconut peat and artificial fertilizer had no rain as anticipated to soak it into the ground. From the first whistle, both teams were in virtual clouds of rising peat and fertilizer. The poor forwards suffered the most and I am surprised that someone did not choke and collapse with excessive dust in their lungs. Tough they must be to go on and on "biting the dust" after each move and frequently bathing themselves with water to cleanse the eyes. Although the gate receipts did not show much promise for the home side. I was impressed by the reasonable spectator participation being the first outing for the Havelocks. The Havelocks should have not lost this game. In having invested in a classy player from the hills mainly for his dynamism in kicks. Saliya Kumara fluffed two important ones. Although the game ended with the Police winning with a score of 13/8 points, I cannot really say that the game was interesting. Both teams failed to air the ball to the wingers. Both teams were at fault in always bringing the ball back to the forwards. It was by design then they failed miserably as the ball was not eased out swiftly to make use of the advantage in regaining ball. The only moment that thrilled me was the brilliant run by the Havelock Stand Off - Wasim Thajudeen, who zig zagged his way through a tight Police defence to score almost in the far corner. The try was unconverted. In the last quarter of the game when the score was at 10 points to 08 for the Police, the coach cum player of the Havelocks Sports Club who could not control his emotions got on to the field in his jogging shoes - much to the dismay of their officials and laughter of the spectators. What was the gargantuan man who was anything but an athlete trying to do? We later realised that he was orchestrating his team to score a try. This however failed when the Police converted a penalty in the dying stags of the game. One thing that improved my ego was that some of my friends said that I too could have done better. Thank you. |
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