Sri Lanka Rugby under its new president Rizly Illyas is hoping to bring back the Asiad to Sri Lanka, which it first hosted in1974. Sri Lanka Rugby is sure to receive maximum support from the new Sports Minister Namal Rajapakse who is also a great rugby follower in this endeavour.
The first-ever Rugby Asiad to be held in our country was in 1974,where Sri Lankan enjoyed one of their finest moments on the rugby field finishing second to Japan. That was the fourth edition of the tournament, and was played at Longden Place where eight teams were divided into two pools. Sri Lanka who headed their group “A” beat Singapore 10-4, Laos 39-3 and Malaysia 12-6 and lost the final to Japan 6-44. Third place went to South Korea who beat Malaysia 41-0. This tournament was the biggest ever rugby competition to be hosted by the country. Group B comprised Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand. The final placing: 1) Japan, 2) Sri Lanka, 3) South Korea, 4)Malaysia, 5) Singapore, 6) Hong Kong, 7) Thailand, 8) Laos.
In this Asiad Indrajith Coomraswamy led the side, and late Col Bertie Dias one of the finest rugby coaches in the country was in charge of the team. The credit for Sri Lanka s performance should go to Dias, who took great pains to mould them into a formidable outfit.
It was YC Chang who was tipped to lead the country, but he was deprived of this opportunity because he was suspended for walking out of a game which CH & FC played against Havelocks due to a referee’s error. That was the level of discipline at that time.The decision to stage the Asiad in Colombo was made during the third Asian tourney held in Hong Kong in 1972 in which Sri Lanka took part under the captaincy of Chang. On arrival from Hong Kong, Mahes Rodrigo, manager of the team disclosed: “Three countries opposed Sri Lanka’s bid to stage the 1974Asiad in Colombo. They were however out voted.”
In Sri Lanka’s first match Singapore led 4-3 with about ten minutes from the final whistle and it was Kandy SC’s second rower Lanil Tennakoon who fired a penalty from 40 metres out to give Sri Lanka the much needed lead. Then in the last minute skipper Indrajith Coomaraswamy went over for a try, which was unconverted to make the final score 10-4. In the next game Sri Lanka beat Laos by 39 points to 3, and against Malaysia which was the decider of Group “A”, Sri Lanka won 12-6 to qualify to play Japan in the final. Malaysia scored first through a penalty by fly half Franki Wong and mid-way in the half Charles Wijewardena fired a penalty to make it 3-all. Minutes before half time Sri Lanka scored through Jeffery de Jong - a difficult conversion was goaled by Wijewardena to give Sri Lanka a 9-3 lead. After the turn around, Franki Wong scored his second penalty goal; the score read Sri Lanka 9 Malaysia 6. Minutes from this penalty Wijewardene put the issue beyond doubt with another superb penalty kick at goal to give the win.
The final was played at Longden Place in front of a massive crowd. It was Sri Lanka who drew first blood through a penalty from Wijewardena, and in the first half the Japanese scored 18 points against Sri Lanka’s 3. At the final whistle the score read Japan 44 (4 goals, 5 tries) to Sri Lanka’s 6 (2 penalties).
The 1974 squad comprised players of the calibre of Nizar Hadji Omar, Alphonso Rodrigo, Jeyer Rodriguesz,Lanil Tennekoon, Maiya Gunasekara, Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Jeffry Yu, AntonBenedict (Forwards), Hanzil Samad (Scrum half), Hafi Abdeen, Jeffrey de Jong,Didacas de Almeida, Omar Sharif, Mahesh Sabaratnam, Charles Wijewardena(backs). The others in the squad were Nimal Malagamuwa, Brian Baptist, M.FFernando, Clifford Elhart, Shafie Jainudeen and GB Gunadasa. Except for Nimal Malagamuwa everyone got a break to play in the Asiad.
The 1974 Asiad tournament committee was headed by Mahesh Rodrigo, who had veterans like EL Mathysz, JDNBanks, A Raymond, Bentley Barsenbeck, Nimal Maralande, Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa,Dr. L.D Dissanayake, Com. Malcolm Marshal, Brig. P.D. Ramanayake, Maj. Sena de Silva, P. Mahendran, Flt. Lt. P Wijesuriya, C.de Zilva, Lt. A Doray and S.G deSoysa.
Sri Lanka Rugby has a long history, dating back to the days of British colonialism. Sri Lanka discovered the game of rugby a the same time as India, and the first rugby club, Colombo Football Club, was founded in Sri Lanka in 1879 (in 1896 the Colombo Football Club amalgamated with the Colombo Hockey Club to become the Colombo Hockey and Football Club) CH & FC. The first rugby match played between two selected teams on June 30 that year between Colombo and a’World’ Team.
The first ever club game to be played was on September 7 1880 between Dickoya MCC and Dimbulla ACC at Darawella, with Dickoya winning the game by 9 points to 3. In 1891 rugby was introduced to Kandy Boys High school by L. E. Blaze, now known as Kingswood College, Kandy.
Kingswood College played the first high school rugby match in the country against their home town rivals Trinity College in 1906. The match ended in a, 6-all. draw
The Ceylon RugbyFootball Union was founded 10 August 1908. In 1974 it changed its name to the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union. In 1932 the Ceylon RFU XV won the All India Cup at all India Rugby Football Tournament In 1997,Sri Lanka participated in the opening round of 1999 Rugby World Cup qualifier.After defeating Thailand and Singapore in the opening round., and saw the world ranking improve from 68thto 43rd place, and its Asian ranking improve to fifth place.
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