Foreigners should be allowed to play club rugby, says Gomes

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

RUGBY: "The Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union should allow clubs to field foreigners in domestic tournaments which would help local players to improve their ball handling skills and defence which would stand them in good stead when competing at international level", said the Managing Director cum CEO of Chevron Lubricants Lanka Limited Kishu Gomes.

He said that Sri Lankan players would improve their standard immensely by playing with foreigners in local tournaments and the presence of foreigners will attract bigger crowds for club matches.

Gomes said that the SLRFU should conduct the Caltex 'A' Division League and only one knock-out tournament instead of two. By playing two knock-out tournaments the season was extended till end of September with rugby fans losing interest in the game as was evident in the President's Trophy knock-out tournament with the semi-finals attracting less than 300 spectators and the final between CR and FC and CH and FC being witnessed by not more than 1000 spectators.

He also emphasised the need for the SLRFU to issue complimentary tickets for schoolboy ruggerites so that they would come to witness club rugby matches as they could learn a lot by watching senior players in action at club matches.

It was also disappointing to see only 10 schools playing in the top division - segment one of 'A' Division although more than 600 schools play rugby in Sri Lanka.

Gomes was happy to note that the SLRFU was able to conduct all the tournaments successfully with the co-operation of all the clubs. The Sri Lanka schools Rugby Football Association should conduct more tournaments in rural areas in a bid to unearth hidden talent so that those strongly built boys from lesser known schools could go onto play for Sri Lanka.

He also said that the service teams Army, Air Force and Police should recruit outstanding ruggerites which would result in improvement in their rugby standard. A few years ago Army was a force to be reckoned with in the 'A' Division and drew large crowds for their matches which was a morale-booster for the team.

Gomes said that Kandy Sports Club was far superior to all the other teams as the club was run in a professional manner. Players needs like medical expenses, employment, nutrition were provided by the management who also provided attractive cash incentives for outstanding performances which resulted in the players giving of their best and Kandy emerging as undisputed champions. Colombo clubs should strive to emulate Kandy SC if they are to match upto them in the next few years.

"Caltex came forward to sponsor rugby in the year 2000 as they felt that rugby was a game which suited Sri Lanka which does not need much resources. Rugby has speed, power and strength which is synonymous with the brand name Caltex and it's also the second most popular sport in the country after cricket.

Caltex will continue to sponsor rugby till 2010," he said.

He was delighted at the progress of Sri Lanka rugby at international level with the country having notched up victories over Singapore, Thailand, China, India and Kazakhstan in World Cup qualifying games during the last two years and hoped that Sri Lanka would end up within the first three in Asia in the next few years.

Kishu Gomes was a top class athlete during his school days at Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. He was national schools champion in the 110 metres hurdlers in 1983 and Colombo District champion for three consecutive years from 1981 to 1983 in the 100 metres event.

He represented his school at rugby as a wing three quarter in 1983 and vividly remembers the match against Nalanda as his opposite number was Roshan Mahanama, the former Sri Lanka Test cricketer and present ICC Match Referee.