Please permit me a few lines in your valuable space of the Sunday Observer to congratulate Sri Lanka Rugby for taking a stand to have a specialist team for Sevens rugby which is our strength to challenge international teams.
For too long have administrators of the past depended on fifteen-a-side players to don the Sevens jersey and this has taken Sri Lanka nowhere. A classic example can be taken from Fiji that has a specialist Sevens team that dominates world rugby and the country that dominates world fifteen-a-side rugby New Zealand cannot match the Fijians when it comes to Sevens rugby.
I like to congratulate the vice president of Sri Lanka Rugby Nazim Mohamed for making a bold statement in the Sunday Observer of last week where he declared they will not look at fifteen –a-side players to build a future Sevens team that has so many Asian rugby challenges to confront.
If I may recall Sri Lanka last did well in Sevens rugby at the 1984 Hong Kong Sevens where the team won the Bowl trophy. The team that won that trophy comprised Hisham Abdeen, Nalin de Silva, CPP Abeygoonawardena, Chula Dharmadasa, Hubert Ryan, Rohantha Pieris, Chandrishan Perera, Len de Silva and Saman Jayasinghe.
True all of them played fifteen-a-side rugby but they were exceptional players who are yet to be replaced. This is why Sri Lanka has to groom special players for Sevens rugby as today’s fifteen-a-side players are no match for the team that won the Bowl at the Hong Kong Sevens in 1984.
Administrators who ran Sri Lanka Rugby in the past have only come out with all-talk and no play and used their positions to enhance their business careers through rugby contacts.
Sri Lanka Rugby has now made a positive start in looking for that dream Sevens team and I congratulate Mr. Nazim Nohamed a former Sri Lanka player for taking it upon himself to look to the future.
Unlike in the past where there was only a handful of players coming through a system, today there are hundreds of players who represent their school teams and come through. Two players who have done it well and are now part of the Sri Lanka Sevens team is Kevin Dixon and Naveen Henakankanamge.
Last year there was a star player called Gemunu Cheitiya who played for St. Joseph’s College and scored tries as a winger in every match. These are the players that Sri Lanka needs for its Sevens team.
Lakmal Jayasekera
Colombo 5