It was once perhaps the only sport that was undiluted, free of politicking, administered by people of high calibre integrity and patronized by teeming common crowds who were provided their money’s worth by players of fine quality.
Today apart from the players who are doing their level best to keep the flame of rugby alive, the rest of the ingredients have gone into making an unpalatable dish and the proof is in the pudding.
Egoistic administrations of the past that began somewhere around 12 to 15 years ago drove away the common followers and a drop in playing standards have made the country’s Premier inter club league rugby championship a mere one or two horse race.
But the worst was to set in last May when rugby fell into the hands of a so-called government authority that almost ripped the sport apart and what is left of the sport and its followers could only hope that a new beginning will unfurl when a long awaited election of office-bearers will be held on January 21 and a new Constitution passed to the liking of World Rugby that funds Sri Lanka’s development projects.
There had been very little that administrators had done for the welfare of rugby other than boost their pompous egos some of whom have been noted for their political colours.
Some of the projects started by them have yet to prove their worth like in the case of floodlighting Havelock Park that drew the biggest crowds in the 1970s and ‘80s when rugby was truly a people’s game and played under natural lights.
Here the vanity and egoism of one man drove away the little of what was left of the supporters of rugby and the men and boys who wore the pink and chocolate jersey, by playing matches under lights for the benefit of a few night birds at the bar who do not have to depend of public transport after sunset.
Contrasting was the packed venue in February 2024 when Colombo’s CR and FC hosted the defending champions Kandy SC in the league decider and rugby was truly the winner and for once in many years it was a people’s game played during the day for a following that did not have to pay a buck to enter.
The message that came out was that sport and in this case rugby in Sri Lanka should not be left to rot in the hands of a chosen few who are nothing but opportunists not in touch with ground reality.
Perhaps the only form of progress that rugby has made over the past 10 or 15 years came in the form of a new set of rugby referees some of them young women against all obstacles that has only exposed the short sightedness of administrators that ran the affairs of Sri Lanka Rugby which is now at the threshold of turning a new leaf that has no room for parasites or fungus.
The players are watching and the followers are waiting.
The 2025 season played to an empty stand at night at Havelock Park (Pic: Sudath Nishantha)
