Rugby Interim Committee Chairman Dr Maiya Gunasekere states that Sri Lanka’s rugby has been caught in a transition period where the players have been forced to contest a sevens rugby tournament during the offseason.

"This is a period where the players are following the schedules of their coaches to bulk up (Gain weight) and it is not the best time to take part in sevens competition," said Gunasekere.

Gunasekere said that the Carlton Sevens rugby tournament had cropped up suddenly and as a result had to be accommodated in the island’s rugby calendar.

Fingers have been pointed at Gunasekere for disregarding the rules he set for players to give priority for national duty by allowing some of the national sevens players to contest the recently concluded defense services rugby tournament. This gave rise to a situation where practices for the Carlton Sevens had to be postponed till the players finished with the defense services rugby tournament.

"I must say that the present incident is quite different from the past one where players were preserving their energies and not representing the country because they had to represent their clubs at a domestic tournament, in a few weeks time. The players who represented the forces teams in this recent tournament have been in constant training and even the national team coach Imthie Marikar has agreed with me that these players are fit to represent the country because they have done so much training," Gunasekere said.

He said that the SLRFU has to make provisions to allow players to contest the defense services tournament because this tournament was named in the rugby calendar well in advance.

Gunasekere said that the defense services tournament would have been rescheduled had the dates of the two tournaments clashed.

The Rugby Interim Committee big boss refused to accept that the country’s dwindling rugby standards would be exposed further in the tournament due to Sri Lanka not having their best players due to ban slapped on them. "It’s too early to predict the performance of the Sri Lanka team. Definitely we will not have the services of players in the class of Fazil Marija at this tournament. But then again, let’s wait and see. I believe the national team will fare honourably," he said.

Commenting on reports that there were plans initiated to lift the ban on the players so that Sri Lanka could be at full strength at the Carlton Sevens, he said, "People (Players) make mistakes and they can appeal to the minister to lift the ban on them. There is a court case on this and I don’t wish to say more on this".

Gunasekere told his critics that rugby had benefited due to the appointing of an Interim Committee. "The SLRFU constitution would never have been changed if not for the Interim Committee and people would have been working with vested interest had the old constitution existed. At present the management of money is done accurately and rugby is on a good footing, given that the sport is administered in keeping with the sports law of the country," he further said.