YOU can't help but have only admiration for two recent SLRFU decisions intended to give greater thrust to junior development. At a meeting a fortnight ago, jointly presided over by DIG Nimal Lewke and Dr. K. A. D. Punyadasa, presidents respectively of the Union and the Schools Rugby Association, it was decided to (1) establish an under16 national development pool and (2) launch an under 20 Inter Provincial tournament.

Apparently, decision (1) is intended to dovetail into decision (2), meaning the under 16 development pool would serve as a feeder of better talents to the seven under 20 teams that are to figure in the proposed Inter Provincial - a competition of countrywide representation, which, goes without saying, would be the picking ground for any national junior team, be it under 18, 19 or 20.

The ultimate objective, obviously, is to establish a system that would yield stronger and better-prepared national teams for the yearly under 20 Junior Rugby Asiad, singly the most important junior tournament in Asia, being as it is the gateway to the World Junior Championship.

Junior internationals

With the next Junior Asiad scheduled for December in Korea, the Union and the SLSRFA are determined to launch the under 20 Inter Provincial within the next few months. As well, the Union release, emanating from the meeting of a fortnight ago, speaks of plans to host one or two junior internationals, hopefully against Hong Kong/Thailand/ or Malaysia, this September/October.

It is, of course, too premature to say what sort of impact the under 16 development pool will have on the country's under 20 rugby - an assessment that would be possible only after the two initiatives have been up and running for up to three-to-five seasons. As blueprints go, though, it has to be regarded as the most thoughtful plan ever conceived for preparing the country's team for the Junior Asiad.

Past preparations, bar the one undertaken for the Colombo Junior Asiad in 2001 when we qualified for the Junior World Championship, has, at best, been ad hoc; an arrangement cobbled together few weeks prior to the event. The way Dr. Punyadasa described it; as preparations go, the past ones were but an apology for the sort actually required before competing in Asia's supreme junior rugby competition.

Asia's best

"The Junior Asiad is the most important junior rugby tournament in the continent - but our preparations didn't quite show we were readying for such a serious event. We approached it as if it were just another tournament . a few trials, the squad selected and then off to play against Asia's best.

That's just not good enough," said Dr. Punyadasa. "By getting an under 16 development pool going and conducting annual Inter Provincial under 20 tournaments, we hope that a continuing long-term preparation for the Junior Asiad would've been established - a sort of self-operating system."

This plan, it has to be said, is an academic masterpiece, though, only time will tell whether the desired objectives would see the light of day. My only criticism of it, though, is that the plan doesn't speak, as plans must, of a future beyond the Junior Asiad. With the Union being co-author of this blueprint, you'd expect mention of the plan's intended influence on first division and national rugby.

Different entities

But then, it will be argued, senior rugby ought not to be entangled with the junior; the two are different entities - to which, some will respond: but for the dependence of one on the other, there can be no future for rugby. 

Even so, for the sheer creativity of the plan, applause is irresistible - except for one restraint. Down the long years, we've been swamped with all sorts of development plans, all promising a better future for the game. However, we soon learn that our rugby has indeed changed, but not for the better. All you have to do is look at the stands depleting year-in-year-out to remind you of division one rugby's sad decline.

Caltex, sponsors of first division tournaments, made mention of its concerns over one-sided competitions. The company's CEO, Kishu Gomes, at the media launch of the 2008 league season, expressed the hope the season would provide more competitive matches, "not one-horse races" - so that rugby might win back its once huge spectator-following.

Clifford cup

It wasn't a complaint, but it is excusable to think Gomes was disguising his disappointment. After all, there's little to please the sponsor when in seven long seasons there hasn't been a change of champions.

And over the past 15 years, the Clifford Cup has as good as been willed to Kandy SC, who, since 1992, has been winners for all but only two seasons, in one of which they weren't participants.

The 2008 season is already a month old, and not far from concluding its eight-team round one. And from the preface it seems as if it's going to be the same old story of Kandy SC dominance. The only worthy challenger appears to be again the same old No.2, CR &FC. Both remain undefeated.

Serious challenge

Police, it was thought, would present a serious challenge this season, but alas, Kandy SC last week overcame them 39/6, a margin too big to encourage hopes of a different outcome in their other meetings this season. The Havelocks, the third undefeated team, is being talked up as a worthy challenger, but the real examination of their strength is yet to come: v. Police, Kandy SC, CR and CH.

The Park club might pull off a win or two more, but as for wrenching the league trophy from Kandy SC's clasp, well, that's as remotely away as they are from their halcyon years of the '60s through to the '80s.

Then, the public floggings handed Old Zahirians is cruel - and seriously degrades what is the country's premier domestic tournament. These annihilations have given the game a new method of measuring clubs' strengths: a club incapable of posting 100-plus over OZRFC is unworthy of first division status!

Noble principle

It's not the first time that OZRFC has been reduced to whipping boys of first division rugby. So, it begs the question why OZRFC continues to be persevered with as a first division team? The Union answer  to encourage first division ambitions among other emerging teams.

It's a noble principle, but the problem is life in the first division requires more than encouraging words from the Union; tangible support in terms of men and material is required. But OZRFC receives no more than the annual disbursement of Rs.100, 000 given other clubs too.

If the Union honestly wishes to improve the quality of first division competition then the new entrants need to be given greater helping -both in terms of technical and financial assistance. To expect OZRFC to fend for themselves is pretty much leaving the new-born among wolves. That's not development.

Rubgy's top storey  

This is where the master plan we spoke of earlier is in gross contradiction of overall development. This is not to say there is no virtue in having an under 16 development pool with links to an under 20 Inter Provincial tournament so as to found a system that would improve Junior Asiad preparations.

Assuming the system is successful, it is lovely to think that a batch of junior players of high quality pedigree would become available annually to first division clubs. The reality, however, is a whole lot starker. The number of first division clubs is no more than what it was when much less rugby was played at the junior level. Said simply, presently there's no room in rugby's top storey. 

Consider the facts: 67 schools figure in the three divisions of the Singer Schools tournament. Add to those 97 "developing" schools that compete in the seven provincial tournaments. That makes a grand total 164 rugby-playing schools in the island.

The contrast

Contrast that with the numbers of some three-four decades ago. You could count the of rugby-playing schools with your fingers: Trinity, Royal, S. Thomas,'St. Peter's, St. Joseph's, Wesley, St. Anthony's Isipathana, Thurstan and briefly Dharmasoka Ambalagoda; 10 in all.

The proliferation of rugby schools in Kandy didn't happen until Kandy SC's dominance began in the early '90s. And the provincial spread began, also in the 1990s, with the inauguration of provincial unions.

At the time when there were a handful of rugby-playing schools, the number of clubs available to the school-leavers was, ironically, more than the present eight. Then Colombo had CR, CH, and Havelocks and for awhile, NCC; Up country: Kandy SC, Kandy RFC, Dimbula, Dickoya, Uva and Kelani Valley. Add the service teams - Army, Navy, Air Force and the Police - and you had a bounteous 14 first division clubs to absorb the products of 10 schools.

Presently, there's far more supply than demand: 164 rugby-playing schools: eight first division clubs. That ratio reflects eloquently the pathetic story of our rugby - a tale of more schoolboy talent being lost than absorbed to first division rugby.

The products of the under 16 development pool and the Inter Provincial under 20 tournament are going to only compound the frustration of the young players with no clubs to play for. It's a malady that might well kill off the game. Some creative rescue plans on that score would be more useful, Presidents Lewke and Punyadasa.

Rupasinghe: The talk of his US College

AMRIT Rupasinghe has turned in some exceptional performances for Bates College in the All-American Inter Collegiate Division Three Men's Tennis Championship.

The 20-year-old Sri Lankan's first noteworthy contribution was to help Bates, in Maine, qualify for the All-American Collegiate Div. 3 Championship - no mean task given that 600 teams were in the race for only 16 places. To add to Bates joy of qualification, the All-American event was held this year in their own backyard, in Lewiston -so arousing tremendous enthusiasm among the local population.

Reports on the website, Sunjournal.com, mention of the presence of large crowds, unseen before, cheering the Sri Lankan and his doubles partner, Ben Stein.

Cliffhanger quarterfinal

The Bates pair won a cliffhanger quarterfinal, which Sunjournal described thus: "Down a set and a break, the Bates duo found an extra gear in the second set, forced a tiebreaker, and rode the momentum swing - and the raucous crowd - to a 6/1 win in the third set over Washington University in Louis' Chris Hoeland and Charlie Cutler to advance to the semi final."

The semifinal, however, brought less happy tidings. The Sunjournal reports again: "The Lewiston tennis community and what seemed like half of the Bates College campus did their best to push Ben Stein and Amrit Rupasinghe into the national finals of the Division III Men's Doubles Championships.

"But a pair of untimely breaks of serves spelled the end of the duo's dynamic run.

"Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert of Gustavus Adolphus showed solid net play and resolve enough to come back from an early break against a hostile crowd to upend Stein and Rupasinghe, 7-5, 6-4, to earn a place in the final match,"

All American honours

Notwithstanding the semifinal elimination, Sri Lankan Rupasinghe wrote his name into the Bates' record books by being just one of six in the College's history to win the All-American honours - awarded for outstanding individual performances in just not tennis but all sports the College play. As well, the successes in the All-American Collegiate earned Rupasinghe and Stein No.1 spot in the North Eastern rankings.

Rupasinghe, an old boy of St. Thomas' Kollupitiya, won a tennis scholarship to Bates College in 2006. While vacationing here last year, he found time to compete in the National Championships - and walked off with his first National Singles title.

His ambition is to represent Sri Lanka at the Davis Cup. He, like Franklyn Emmanuel and Oshada Wijemanne, wasn't available for the 2008 Davis Cup in April owing to examinations. "Normally, the Davis Cup is held around July/August, and if next year it falls into that time frame, Amrit says he'll definitely give a shot at Davis Cup selection, '' said a member of the Rupasinghe family.

Outstanding youngsters

Rupasinghe, together with outstanding youngsters Harshana Godamanna, Emmanuel, Wijemanne, are products of a junior development program initiated under the presidency of Lalith Vitharna in 2000 and placed in charge of Arjan Perera. The programme was given further impetus through greater investments during the 2002-07 presidency of Suresh Subramaniam.

Rupasinghe is likely to defend his singles title at this August Nationals. A nice opportunity is before the SLTA to spice up this year's Nationals - by endeavoring to bring down those talented US-based youngsters to participate in the event. But the problem is that the SLTA administration is virtually pro-tem, awaiting a new date from Sport Minister Gamini Lokuge to hold the postponed 2008 AGM.

Ecstatic home crowd

It is hardly likely a lame duck administration will be inclined to undertake the not so small job of gingering the Nationals with overseas players  - not if you've followed the way it has stumbled from controversy to another, from selection rows to a vanishing  CEO to allegations of commission-taking from ad firms. 

Bates College's Ben Stein (Pelham, N.Y.) and sophomore Amrit Rupasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka) defeated Trinity University's Oliver Gaines and Ryan DeSantis 6-4, 7-6 (3) Friday in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Doubles Championships in front of an ecstatic home crowd at Bates' Wallach Tennis Center.

Stein and Rupasinghe advanced to Saturday's quarterfinals, where they will meet Washington University duo Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland, the No. 2 seed in the field. By making the quarterfinals the Bobcat pair secured All-America honors, becoming the fifth and sixth Bates men's tennis All-Americans.

Evenly matched

The match was quite evenly matched, with only one game separating both throughout the first set, until the Bobcats extended their 5-4 advantage to 6-4.

Gaines and DeSantis took Bates to a tiebreaker in the second set, where the Bobcats took immediate control, building a 5-2 lead. A service ace by Stein clinched the victory for the home team, Bates' lone representation at the six-day NCAA Championships (Stein was the alternate from the Northeast Region in the singles field.) 

The quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Singles Championship were slated for 9 a.m and 12 p.m Saturday, followed by the doubles quarter-finals at 3 p.m.

Sunday will feature the singles finals at 12 p.m, followed by the doubles semi-finals at 2 p.m and the doubles finals at 4 p.m.

Singles, Doubles fields narrowed

Seven out of eight seeds were eliminated from the 32-player field Friday as the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Singles Championship was reduced to eight players in two rounds.

No. 1 seed John Watts of Washington University in St. Louis advanced to Saturday's quarter-finals with victories over Jared Kamel of UC Santa Cruz and Andrew Lee of Middlebury.

Watts will face Michael Klimchak of The College of New Jersey in Saturday's quarter-finals, which begins at 9 a.m. The other quarter-final match-ups will pit: Chris Fletcher of Methodist vs. Michael Greenberg of Kenyon; Stephen Sullivan of Bowdoin vs. Spencer Feldman of Trinity (Conn.) College; and Charlie Cutler of Washington University vs. Filip Marinkovic of Middlebury College.

In the doubles play, Stein and Rupasinghe will meet Cutler and Hoeland of the newly minted NCAA team champion, the Bears of Washington University in St. Louis.

Other quarter-final doubles matchups on Saturday will pit Middlebury's Marinkovic and Andrew Thomson vs. Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert of Gustavus Adolphus; UC Santa Cruz's Kamel and Marc Vartabedian against John Mook and Eddie Glidewell of Christopher Newport; and Guillaume Schils and Larry Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. Randy Loden and Kaz Murata of Mary Washington.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Singles Championship were slated for 9 a.m and 12 p.m Saturday, followed by the doubles quarter-finals at 3 p.m.

Sunday will feature the singles finals at 12 p.m, followed by the doubles semi-finals at 2 p.m and the doubles finals at 4 p.m.

Singles Round of 32 Scores

#1 John Watts (Washington-St. Louis) def. Jared Kamel (UC-Santa Cruz), 7-5, 6-0

Andrew Lee (Middlebury) def. Mark Boren (Emory), 7-5, 6-4

Michael Klimchak (TCNJ) def. John Kauss (Gustavus Adolphus), 6-2, 6-0

John Mook (Christopher Newport) def. #8 Larry Wang (Claremont-M-S), 6-4, 7-5

Chris Fletcher (Methodist) def. #5 Garrett Gates (Bowdoin), 6-4, 6-1

Cameron Taylor (Pomona-Pitzer) def. Kortney Keith (DePauw), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (6)

Michael Greenberg (Kenyon) def. James Furr (Trinity-TX), 6-1, 6-0

Randy Loden (Mary Washington) def. #4 Dan Greenberg (Williams), 6-2, 6-1

#3 Michael Goodwin (Emory) def. Eric Wagar (Redlands), 7-6 (3), 6-2

Stephen Sullivan (Bowdoin) def. Miguel Yunes (Carthage), 6-1, 6-2

Spencer Feldman (Trinity-CT) def. John Pelton (Hope), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3

#6 Oliver Gaines (Trinity-TX) def. Brendan Kincaid (Salisbury), 6-7 (4), 7-5, 3-3 (retired)

#7 John James (Mary Washington) def. Dustin Phillips (Texas-Tyler), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4)

Charlie Cutler (Washington-St. Louis) def. Zach Lerner (Amherst), 7-6 (5), 6-3

David Maldow (Johns Hopkins) def. Max Ortiz (UC Santa Cruz), 6-3, 6-1

Filip Marinkovic (Middlebury) def. #2 Andy Bryan (Gustavus Adolphus), 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3)

Singles Round of 16 Scores

#1 John Watts (Washington-St. Louis) def. Andrew Lee (Middlebury), 6-2, 7-5

Michael Klimchak (TCNJ) def. John Mook (Christopher Newport), 6-2, 6-2

Chris Fletcher (Methodist) def. Cameron Taylor (Pomona-Pitzer), 6-3, 6-2

Michael Greenberg (Kenyon) def. Randy Loden (Mary Washington), 6-4, 6-1

Stephen Sullivan (Bowdoin) def. #3 Michael Goodwin (Emory), 7-6 (3), 6-2

Spencer Feldman (Trinity-CT) def. #6 Oliver Gaines (Trinity-TX), 6-2, 6-2

Charlie Cutler (Washington-St. Louis) def. #7 John James (Mary Washington), 6-1, 6-1

Filip Marinkovic (Middlebury) def. David Maldow (Johns Hopkins), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4

Doubles Round of 16

#1 Jared Kamel/Marc Vartabedian (UC Santa Cruz) def. Michael Klimchak/Roger Mosteller (TCNJ), 6-1, 7-5

John Mook/Eddie Glidewell (Christopher Newport) def. Michael Greenberg/Jeremy Polster (Kenyon), 7-6 (4), 7-5

Guillaume Schils/Larry Wang (Claremont-M-S) def. Dan Greenberg/Bret Thacher (Williams) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

#4 Randy Loden/Kaz Murata (Mary Washington) def. Randy Lofgren/Kevin Newman (Denison), 7-6 (7), 6-4

Andy Bryan/Charlie Paukert (Gustavus Adolphus) def. Dustin Phillips/David Ashlock (Texas-Tyler), 6-2, 6-3

Ben Stein/Amrit Rupasinghe (Bates) def. Oliver Gaines/Ryan DeSantis (Trinity-TX), 6-4, 7-6 (3)

#2 Charlie Cutler/Chris Hoeland (Washington-St. Louis) def. Casey Blythe/Joe Vasoontara (Johns Hopkins), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4

(TMKS)

Havies drub Police 22-12

Havelocks Sports Club produced a superb second half rally to beat Sri Lanka Police Sports Club by 22 points to 12 points in their Caltex inter club A division league rugby tournament match worked off at the Police Park on Friday.

The Havies who took a close 7 nil lead at half time produced an improved performance in the second half to win the match by a more convincing margin while collecting their points from two goals, one try and one penalty.

Police SC after a promising start failed to maintain the same momentum and responded with one goal and one try.

Prince of Wales in upset 24-11 win over Ananda

Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa scored an upset 24 points to 11 points victory over the more fancied Ananda College team in their Singer inter school under 20 Division One Group B league rugby tournament match played at Longden Place last Friday.

The Cambrians collected their points from two goals and two tries after having led 12-3 at half time. Ananda College managed to score just a solitary try and put over two drop goals.

 Thurstan trounce Science College 42-0

Thurstan College routed Science College, Mount Lavinia by 42 points to nil in their Singer inter school under 20 Division One Group B league rugby tournament match worked off at Longden Place on Friday.

Thurstan collected their points from three goals, three tries and two penalties after having led 13 nil at half time.

Wesley College in rousing 55-5 victory over Lumbini

Wesley College powered their way to score a rousing 55 points to 5 points victory over Lumbini MV in their Singer inter school under 20 Division One Group B league rugby tournament match played at Havelock Park on Friday.

The Wesleyites after having led 10-5 at half time cut loose in the second half and collected their points from five goals and four tries. Lumbini MV managed to score just a solitary try.