Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) chairman Ranjith Chandrasekara said that they needed the permission of the Defence Ministry, Education Ministry and Sports Ministry to re-start the Singer Schools League Rugby tournament which was postponed due to the prevailing situation in the country.
He also said that the association had no intention to cancel the rest of the matches of this year’s tournament.
The tournament was due to start after the weekend of the Sinhala-Tamil New Year festival but was postponed by a week due to the Easter Sunday bomb blasts which took place in the country. But with the present security situation the country has been placed under the SLSRFA has to obtain clearance from the Defence Ministry said Chandrasekara.
A committee meeting of SLSRFA has been called for on April 26 to make the necessary arrangements in seeking permission.
The SLSRFA hopes to re-start the tournament in the first week of May, subject to permission from the Defence, Education and Sports Ministries.
Chandrasekara also said that if they are not able to re-start the tourney in May, it won’t be a reason for not completing the tournament as they can make arrangements to have the tournament after the G.C.E A/L examination in August.
“Anyway we have a few options. One such option is if the schools are agreeable, we can select the league champions according to the first round bonus points. There are only four more weeks to complete the tournament and there is no way to cancel it. The league tournament will be followed by the knockout and age category tournaments. We have initially planned to complete all these tournaments by July 30.
But we hope the situation will normalise by the first week of May.
However we have to get the clearance from the Defence Ministry to hold the tournament,” Chandrasekara explained.
At the end of first round of the Schools League tournament, St. Joseph’s College, Maradana is leading the Cup competition points table winning five out of five matches followed by Isipathana College in second place.
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