“It seems that the resumption of the Under-19 Schools League Tournament is very unlikely, but we have drawn up several alternative options to conduct a tournament fair by the students who are participating in their last year in this age category,” Niroda Wijerama, Secretary, Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) told the Daily News yesterday.
After the government deciding the final date for the General Certificate of Examination (Advance Level) from October 12, the under-19 Schools Rugby Tournament has become a doubtful starter due to lack of time and with the interruption of Exams.
Even though the dates are fixed for A/L exams, it is scheduled to run up to almost a month, which means until mid-November. As per the SLSRFA, it needs a minimum of six weeks to finalise the halted tournament (League) last March, after conducting two weeks of fixtures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this limited time frame, it is likely to clash with the GCE Ordinary Level exam, which is fixed for the first week of December.
Hence, as per the secretary, SLSRFU, it is very unlikely that they could continue with the remaining schedule of the tournament. But he is confident that they might conduct whatever tournament (either 7’s or 15-a side) to accommodate the students in their last year, who are in this age category, without depriving them of their participation at the schools level.
The SLSRFU earlier made several moves to resume this segment of the Schools Rugby calendar, but the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health did not grant permission due to the Coronavirus pandemic in the Country.
The SLSRFU is scheduled to meet with their representatives this week to arrive at a decision regarding the tournament and to move ahead to the next stage of action without further delay.
This year’s tournament is sponsored by Dialog Axiata for the first time after Singer Sri Lanka opted to withdraw.
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