28 March, 2024

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Joe’s Rugby Coach Nalaka Promises Public Apology For Rugby Referee Assault

St. Joseph’s College rugby coach Nalaka Weerakkody has promised rugby referee Priyantha Gunaratne that he will get the Josephian rugby player Tharindu Maduranga to publicly apologize to him after the player was found guilty for assaulting the referee at their recently concluded school’s rugby encounter played against Royal College at the Royal College Sports Complex in Colombo.

It is reliably learnt that Joe’s rugby Coach Weerakkody has personally assured Rugby Referee Gunaratne that he will do so.

“I will bring Tharindu Maduranga and make him apologize to you publicly,” Weerakkody had promised.

The Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association in its concluded inquiry into the incident has enforced a two year ban on the player from taking part in the sport.

The second culprit in the incident Josephian Fly Half Santhush Algama got away scot-free despite holding the referee by the collar, when he was assaulted by his team mate Maduranga. In his defense Algama had stated that he had attempted to protect Referee Gunaratne and had never intended to assist him being assaulted. The committee reviewing his seasons performance took into consideration that Algama had never been issued even a yellow card throughout the season and decided to pardon him.

Coach Nalaka Werakkody and Harin

It can be safely reported that the respected rugby referee Priyantha Gunaratne has never been assaulted by anyone before despite being involved in the sport in many capacities, especially as a rugby coach for over a 25 year period.

The laws according World Rugby clearly states that a player may face a penalty ranging from 24 months to a life ban if a player is found guilty of physically abusing a match official.

In this incident Joe’s player Tharindu Maduranga was captured clearly assaulting rugby referee Priyantha Gunaratne in broad day light and in full view of many spectators and other rugby match officials at the conclusion of the match.

However it is yet to be established if Minister of Sport Harin Fernando, a die-hard old Joe himself, has been instrumental in influencing the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association’s decision of enforcing such a mild penalty.

The inconsistencies within the Yahapalanaya government continues to prevail, as due to a similar offense committed two years ago, Darmaraja College Kandy had their entire team suspended from playing rugby for an entire season. But then again Darmarajah College did not have an old boy as their Minister of Sport then.

It was Minister Harin Fernando’s dream to make St. Joseph’s College lift the league title this season, a dream they have never ever cherished even in the past.

In fact the importing of students had been rampant with even the ‘rugby referee assaulter’ Maduranga being parachuted from Science College Mount Lavinia to play for the Darley Road Maradana school.

Josephian players who were heckled by spectators at the conclusion of the game were also captured on video making rude gestures in return. Even an amateur lip reader could also identify the uncouth language the boys from this saintly school retaliated in their defense.

“A two year suspension for such an offense is like a slap on the wrist. This is a joke. What example is the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association setting in this instance to other school boy rugby players?” cried a disheartened parent of a schools rugby player.

Assault, thuggery and even alleged murder is nothing new to the sport of rugby in Sri Lanka.

At the commencement of the season St.Peter’s College rugby Coach Sanath Martis was caught on video mounting an assault one of his students during a friendly game played against D.S. Senanayake College at Havelock Park.

That incident which went viral on social media even had one commentator on Facebook stating that she would hang Martis’ testicles on his ear lobes if given the opportunity.

However a reliable source within Sri Lanka Rugby said that despite World Rugby instructing them to remove Sanath Martis as an official World Rugby Educator and give him a suspended sentence, the decision has not yet been made official to Martis as yet.

“It has been simply brushed under the carpet for several months,” he said.

Sanath Martis was deprived from coaching St. Peter’s College and Havelocks SC during the season. (By Janaka Ranaweera)

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Latest comments

  • 11
    0

    This student should be banned for life and legal action taken for assault after sacking from school.

  • 9
    0

    I am sad this happened . I am an old Joe . We never had so many imports . We had a good rugger team . Ravi k . the Marcelline Family , Paiva , Mario Gomz Ect . They payed with skill and honor . When so many are imported just to play rugger , they do not have the background and act like this .
    Winning is not everything .

  • 5
    0

    “Tharindu Maduranga”

    In my opinion he is a frustrated also-ran wussy prat in the rugby field but mind you he will make a perfect Politician in Sri Lanka showing so much promise already as a thug.

    I hear Sports minister is consulting his father for advice before making any decisions. He will let everyone know later on after the fact unlike last time.

    • 0
      0

      This bastard Tharindu Maduranga by his name appears not to be a catholic – a pre-requisite for any one with the exception of Ranasinghe Premadasa to be admitted to SJC. As an old joe, I am appalled to read such conduct and behavior is being tolerated by the Rector and staff of SJC. This bratt would have never lasted SJC primary if we only had the stature of priests like the Later Farther Noel Perera in charge of the primary school and boarding.

  • 0
    0

    He is tipped to be a future leader of this country. Gives me a lot of hope for Sri Lanka.

  • 6
    0

    Harin you have brought disgrace to your school by making St.Josephs the barbarians of schools rugby and they are living upto their reputation by acting like barbarians. You can keep trying until you get tired of importing players. By the way have you tried giving steroids to your players? Maybe it is your plan for the 2020 season.

  • 5
    0

    Look at the behavior of our Politicians assaulting each other in Parliament. Indiscipline trickling down the line to every walk of life.

  • 6
    0

    No wonder the behaviour of players and coaches in school sports is hitting low levels. This is a sad reflection of the decline of all moral standards in public life as a whole. What can you expect when you have a liar and cheat as the President of the country who goes about bullying socially vulnerable people on public stages in uncouth language.

  • 3
    0

    Who is Nalaka to issue this type of statement.

  • 6
    2

    This Harin is as shifty as you get among the UNP Cabinet crooks.

    He has no conscience .
    Knowing very well that Kochikade is going to be bombed and lives were going to be lost, Harin Putha hid under the Bed with the” Intelligence” in the Head , while his fellow Catholic Brothers and Sisters went to Sunday Mass.

    How can Harin sleeps with the Missus , when he knows that he could have saved 300 Catholic Lives and further 550 Catholics from getting maimed with life threatening injuries, by just calling his Spiritual Guru and the Leader of the Catholic Church in Colombo..

    Hope Karma will come and bite him in the ass. even before he gets time to organize this Apology to hoodwink the Rugby followers..

  • 5
    0

    The SLSRFA is following in the footsteps of the Govt of SL by pussy footing on all violence and aggression on the rugby field by these school boy ruggerites. We can see where the Country has ended up by this gross inaction on the part of the Govt against violence ,corruption, and hooliganism in this land. The same thing will happen on our schools rugby fields by this inaction of the spineless SLSRFA
    who have no guts to take a stern stand on schoolboy violence.When things get out of hand, then they will look for scapegoats elsewhere and start pointing fingers at parents, schools, spectators, etal.
    Act NOW you bloody morons or leave your posts and let others who can do the job replace you before its too late !!!

  • 2
    0

    What is the Role played by Nalaka in this case . A good player but a maverick now . Is he the liaison Officer . for St . Joseph’s College.

    If not does it not hang bad on the head of a leading school.

  • 4
    2

    Over 20 years ago,St. Joseph’s and Trinity were the safest teams to play. Sad to hear that Joe’s have gone downhill. There were some nightmere teams back then : Thurstan, Isipathana, Dharmaraja, Vidyatha and our mount Lavinia rivals – Science college.

  • 0
    0

    The school should take stern action against this thug. He should go through a course on anger management, and be taught to be “sporty” and settle matters like a gentleman.

  • 2
    0

    Not so long ago during a rugby sevens tournament a referee was assaulted by the son of a VVIP and spectators assaulted when the team of the sons of him played, lost against Kandy sports club.

    This is the result of the leaders setting examples to the younger generation.

  • 1
    0

    The so called “Traditional schools” would like to have their “students” from year 1 onwards for their sports teams. However, if they stuck to their principles, there would be hardly any game won. So schools do “import” students from lesser known schools irrespective of their behavioral records. Even state schools follow this pattern. It is sad that sport is no longer played in the spirit of “sport” and this malaise crept in to the system quite a few decades ago. The “big match” must somehow be won, hook or by crook and sportsmanship be damned. Therefore it is a wonder that the referee is among the living today. His Eminence claims that had he been told of the impending attack he would have closed down the churches, implying that the importance of the Easter Sunday Mass be of secondary consideration. Now Eminence! Do not be another MY3 to say that you got to know this from the press or the internet and pullup a few church officials for not informing of the incident. This is a serious breach of discipline bringing disrepute to the church. To say the least the Rector of Joseph’s should be summoned to the Archbishop’s palace and be given a good dressing down, for it is clear that the Josephian team was breeding indiscipline for quite some time. A coach assuring the referee of a personal apology by the player concerned is of bad taste. The coach should be promptly removed by the school for not inculcating values of sportsmanship among players even if the fellow is a good one in teaching the techniques of the game. The Harin Fernando factor be damned. His Eminence should suspend the entire rugger team despite ministerial pressures and NO RUGGER MORE MATCHES for several seasons.

    • 0
      0

      Good Sense: There is no point asking the cardinal who never walked the halls of St Josephs. Gone are the days when Old Joes who were priests were elevated to the office of Rector. None of the bishops including this Ranjth knows of Father Le Gog or more so the eminent Father Peter Pillai – the first Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) Rector of SJC, More over this fool of a cardinal who is nothing but a mouth piece and stooge of MR ever would have heard of late Father Noel Perera – a kind priest in his own way but a strict disciplinarian of SJC style.

      This student who assaulted the ref should be dismissed – no tendering apology trade offs. This f’er belongs with the MR siblings – they need to be incarcerated.

  • 2
    0

    Boys will be boys as some politico have said of their sons when they misbehave.
    This is the way parliamentarians behave so it all in the game. !
    Really as things stand today the referee should be asked to apologize to the boy !
    Or the boy in his defence should say “danne ne, mathaka ne “.

  • 2
    0

    CT of 05 May 2013 has “Presidential Offspring Rohitha Rajapaksa Assaulted Rugby Referee In Full Public View”
    This infamous incident was world-class news and brought quite a bad name for SL.
    In the present article {“Joe’s Rugby Coach Nalaka Promises Public Apology For Rugby Referee Assault”} CT has listed a few Lankan Rugby ‘assaults’ but not the Rohitha assault.
    Afraid of the ball-kicks Rajapaksa family can arrange? Et Tu CT??
    PS: Yes the same Rohitha travelled from Tangalle to Tanzania, taking a big big entourage, to propose marriage to Tatanya on top of snow-covered Kilimanjaro.

  • 0
    0

    It is a shame to see these ugly scenes at school level. Moreover from a Catholic leading leading school which they talk High about their achievements.
    Boys can be Boys but assaulting an official can never be expected. Recently another youth rugby player was handed a suspension for bad behavior.
    Sports is to build character and discipline people mainly to accept defeat.

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