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Protests against referees ...Royal-Issipathana rugger match stops halfway
The organisation had to stop the first division inter-school rugger match played between the under 20 team rugger tournament between Royal and Issipathana played during the weekend as a result of Royal College players walking out of the field.
In the first half, an Issipathana player had dealt a blow on a Royalist player which incident had gone unnoticed by the referees and it is said that the Royal team had left the field protesting against it with the intention of protecting their players.
By that time a number of Royalist players had received injuries and some of them had to be admitted to hospital later for treatment.
It was subsequently reported that the intention referred to previously was taken by Royal College for the purpose of protecting their players in view of the game to be played with Trinity for the Bradby Shield to be held in the near future.
Issipathana College who were in the lead in the first half with scores of 17-10 were 27-20 in the second half at the time Royal players were leaving the field. By that time, about 20 minutes were left for the game to end and because of Royalist players leaving the field, the match referee had taken steps to grant victory to Issipathana College. However, the Royal College team is to appeal as a protest regarding this match to the school Rugger Association. In a number of matches played prior to this too some issues of protest had cropped up in connection with match referees.
The Match Referee Association earn the highest fee from among Judges' Associations in this country and had taken steps to increase their fee upto Rs.17,000 as their referee fees for the School League Rugger tournament before the tournament commenced. It is reported that as transport fees to access the playing grounds where the match is supposed to be played, an additional payment has to be made. Transport fees in this connection with matches to be played in areas around Colombo is Rs.1,500 and in the case of matches outside Colombo, such as Kandy, the transport fees payable to them is Rs.6,000. As such, the total transport fees payable to 4 persons inclusive of the chief match referee and side referees in a match played in a town such as Kandy amounts to Rs.24,000. Whatever it is, organisers of the tournaments say that decisions taken by referees on this tournament are of a high standard when compared to School League Rugger tournaments held last year. However, it is the opinion of past veterans in the field that match referees should refrain from taking decisions of a debatable nature in the case of decisive matches.
Report -- Faus Mohammed