No Referees at Pallekelle until inquiry

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No Referees at Pallekelle

The Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society (SLRRS) have refrained from providing referees for the Trinity home games until a formal hearing takes place with regards to the incident that took place at the Trinity vs Science encounter last weekend.

Shortly after the full time whistle, referee Irshad Cader was verbally abused and showed by the fans present at the main pavilion as he made his way to the dressing rooms. The situation was later controlled by the intervention of the security personnel.

Following the incident, the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society which is the sole officiating body for rugby in the country has come to a decision that they would not be allocating referees for any of the Trinity home games at Pallekelle until the formal inquiry is concluded and a decision is finalized. Speaking to ThePapare.com, Nizam Jamaldeen, President of the SLRRS mentioned that they are currently awaiting the report from the referee and it will be followed up by an inquiry. Until such time Pallekelle will not be provided with referees for the games.

An inquiry will be conducted after the referees report is submitted by Irshad Cader and the decisions made at the inquiry will be forwarded to the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association for implementation.

An incident of similar nature occurred at the Isipathana vs Science game that was played on the 29th of April 2016. The main referee, Roshan Fernando was assaulted by fans while he was walking towards his dressing room. President Jamaldeen mentioned that an inquiry had been finalized regarding the incident and the SLRRS has submitted the guidelines to the SLSRFA and are yet to hear from them about its progress.

Trinity College currently have three games to go this season and out of which the encounters against St. Anthony’s and St. Peter’s are scheduled to be home games. Therefore it will be important for them to make sure they make the necessary amendments and increase the security detail at the grounds in order to prevent such a unfortunate incident occurring again.