Sri Lanka Rugby sent to sin-bin, over SLRFU foul-play

Saturday, 12 July 2025 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

As someone who played full back — the last line of defence, the cool head under pressure, I was the guy who literally cleans up everyone else’s mess — I’ve seen chaos on a rugby pitch. But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the acrobatic circus currently taking place inside the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU). My brothers, who played fly half and scrum half — brains of the backline — would call it what it is: a match with no game plan, no discipline, and no referee.

If rugby is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, then SLRFU politics is a hooligan’s game played by bureaucrats in blazers two sizes too big for their credibility.

Let’s start with the set pieces. In a functioning rugby union, these are precise, rehearsed, and disciplined. In our SLRFU, set pieces come in the form of boardroom brawls, emergency AGMs, and electoral tie-breakers that make a rolling maul look like ballet. If you thought a scrum collapsed because of poor technique, try watching two SLRFU factions argue over who gets to sign the team sheets — with World Rugby on line two wondering if we still play the sport or just mime it for political theatre.

When I played, you earned your spot — whether you were wearing the number 15, like me, or commanding the backline as number 10 or firing passes at the base like a good number 9 (shout-out to my brothers). Now? Positions in the Union are won with less tackling and more backstabbing. The only breakdown happening is in trust. The only turnover is of leadership. And the only thing binding is the ever-tightening red tape.

Coaches don’t know who they report to. Players don’t know if they’ll be selected or sacrificed. And referees have to bring both a whistle and a lawyer to matches. Club Presidents are staging more press conferences than practices, and school rugby — once the pride of the island — is now a political pawn in a full-contact game of “Who can suspend whom first.”

Grassroots rugby? Still waiting for a rescue pass. Provincial rugby? Offside and ignored. National development programs? Replaced by press releases and personal vendettas. The only consistent thing in Sri Lankan rugby right now is the inconsistency.

Meanwhile, former players like us — who gave our limbs, lungs, and laundry bills to this sport — watch helplessly from the sidelines. We’re not bitter. We’re baffled. This isn’t the game we played. This is 7-a-side nonsense in a 15-man union, with egos taking up all the space in the scrum.

So here’s a modest suggestion: maybe we go back to the basics. You know — ruck, maul, pass, support, repeat. Maybe those running the show could try teamwork for once. Maybe we stop appointing fly-half-sized egos to positions meant for tight-head discipline.

Because until we clear out the dead weight, bind properly, and restart play with purpose — Sri Lankan rugby will keep getting penalised. Not by the opposition, but by its own Union.

And sadly, there’s no TMO to review this mess. Only us — the players who once believed in something bigger than the scoreboard.

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