Rugby talk with Siva

Rugby referees then and now

QUENTIN Israel, a former Trinity Ruggerite, who later played for Havelocks S.C. As a centre three quarter with distinction and then became an 'A' division referee and President of the Referees Society, who also coached St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia and Trinity College, Kandy with tremendous success for several years, wrote in his rugby column 'from the touchline' on September 7, 2005 in the Daily Mirror under the caption "Refereeing leaves a bad taste", that appointing of referees to officiate in key matches has caused grave concern and dissatisfaction to officials who administer the affairs of rugby at clubs and the services, due to the incompetency of the referees.

This is because most of the referees today have not played rugby at school or club level and do not have a recognised rugby background.

As a past rugby player, coach, referee and past president of the Referees Society, I wholeheartedly agree with him.

In the past anyone wishing to join the referees society had to be a rugby player of a club and that club had to recommend him to the referees society and his credentials are gone into before he is enrolled as a referee.

This brought in illustrious referees who had played rugby at the highest level such as Sydney de Soyza, Percy Perera, Archibald Perera, Mahes Rodrigo, Summa Nauaratnam, Dr. Larry Foenander, Dr. V.C. de Silva, Mark Bostock, John Banks, Graeme McLeash, Brian Mills, Air Vice Marshal Harry Goonatileke, Commander Darley Ingleton, Alan Drieberg, Leslie Handunge, Air Vice Marshal J. Barker, Miles Christofelsz, Ashey Cader, Malcolm Wright, Ken McPherson, Leslie Ephreums H.C. Cooper. Major Dennis Happugale, F.C. White, Edward Batholameusz, Lionel Fernando, Eardley McHeyzer, Derrick Christofelz, Newton Marathalingam, Babu Jacob, S.K. Sabaratnam, Colonel Bertie Dias, Colonel C.S. Fernando, Y.C. Chang, Mohan Sahayam, Gamini Fenando, Bentley Barsenbech, Quentin Isreal, Lionel Almeida, S. Sivendran, Anton Benedict, Daya Jayasundara, Tony Amit, Nimal Leuke, M.R. Moosa and S.W. Chang.

They were highly respected by the players on and off the field as most of the players had seen them play brilliant rugby during their days.

When I was president of the referees society, Gamini Fernando who was President of the Havelocks SC recommended several rugby players from his club to be enrolled as referees and Roshan Deen, Vimal Senanayake, Orville Fernando.

And Mahinda Jayawardane made the grade and became 'A' division referees. Dilroy Fernando from CR & FC and Anil Jayasinghe of Kandy too joined the ranks of 'A' Division Referees.

Nizam Jamaldeen, when he was playing for the police, I introduced him to referee the St. Peters College vs Trinity College junior match played at Sugathadasa Stadium in 1987 when I was coaching St. Peter's College, and he too later became a competent 'A" Division Referee.

But today referees who have been recruited to the Referees Society lack the credentials of having played either school rugby or club rugby and they are an unknown quantity and unknown in the rugby world. As a result they are not in a position to earn respect from the players as did the referees of yesteryear.

Even some of the officials at the helm of affairs in the Referees Society too do not have a record of having played rugby at a reasonable level which adds to the woes of refereeing.

To overcome these shortcomings the rugby clubs should nominate knowledgeable past players to the Referees Society for refereeing and to administer the affairs of the Referees Society, which will do Sri Lankan Rugby a world of good.

Summa Navaratnam invited to USA

Summa Navaratnam, the ace sprinter and famous rugby player have been invited to be the chief guest at the inter-school 7-a side rugby tournament to be held on the 25th of September by the Old Boys Association of

Royal College in USA. During his visit he will be the guest of the Royal College Old Boys Association of California, New Jersey and Toronto. As a gift for his services to rugby and athletics at Royal College for the last 60 years and also to celebrate his 80th Birthday.