Any person to mature as a reputed sportsman has to start from the grass root, which is the school level which plays a pivotal role in one’s life. But Lanil Tennekoon, a yesteryear rugby legend was an extraordinary talented player who never involved himself at school in competitive rugby who later went on to lead the Sri Lanka Rugby team at International tournaments.
He hails from a sporting family as his father John Tennekoon was one the great products of St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota, representing his alma mater at Cricket and Boxing. He later joined the Police force and played rugby and Boxed for them during the pre-war period.
Lanil was a great product of Trinity College, Kandy. From his childhood he had a liking for sports especially towards rugby football. Even though he rose to a top class rugby player, never represented the college rugby team, but took part only in the inter house rugby matches captaining the house team.
In 1970, soon after he left school after the academic career he joined Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club to engage in Rugby under the captaincy of Malin Goonatilake and at Cricket under the captaincy of Bede Johnpillai. While maturing as a senior player he opted to come to Colombo to engage in competitive rugby playing for CH & FC ‘Kabaragoyas’ in 1971. He was then selected for the senior side making his debut in 1972 under the captaincy of Darrel Wimalaratne, which year they remained unbeaten League Champions and lost to Police 9-12 in the Clifford Cup finals, in injury time with Nizam Hadireen firing the all-important penalty, incidentally they had beaten Police in both outings in the league tournament.
He was a blessed player with some unstinted kicking skills which enabled them to win from the knockout stages putting over all the penalty kicks on offer up to the finals. The CH team consisted of some top players in that era like Y.C. Chang, Ron Hutchinson, Boga Gunasekera, Nizar, Kumar Bastianpillai. With Bryan Baptist and Noel Brohier he played in the third row as a flanker The others were Michael Hauck, Hamish Paternott and Tony Amith to name a few. The Police side consisted of some star studded players led by Anton Benedict, Rock Banda,Tuan Morseth,J B Kularatne, R P Linton, Nimal Abeysinghe, Bandula. Wijesinghe, Nizam Hajireen, Abdul Majeed and Ibrahim Hamid are a few to be named.
Two years later he moved to Kandy and was selected to represent Sri Lanka at the 4th Rugby Asiad under Indrajith Coomarswamy in Sri Lanka. He was shifted to play as a second row forward and played along with Nizar Hadji Omar, Alphonso Rodrigo, Jeyer Rodriguesz, Dr. Maiya Gunasekera, Jeffrey de Jong, Anton Benedict, Hanzil. Samad, Hafi Abdeen, Reginald Bartholomeusz, Didacus de Almeida, Omar Sheriff, Mahesh Sabaratnam, Shafie Jainudeen, M.F. Fernando, Harendra Gunasekara, Bryan Baptist, Jeffery Yu, G.B.Gunadasa, Clifford Elhart NT B Dassanayake and Charles Wijewardena. They subsequently lost to Japan 6-44 in the final which incidentally was the first time that Sri Lanka ever played in an Asiad final, where all countries had their proper national teams in the fray.
He wants to recall the strenuous training period they underwent in preparation for this tournament at the Army Training Camp, Diyatalawa under
the watchful eyes of coach Major Bertie Dias. In the curtain raiser the Lankans edged out Singapore 10-4, where two penalties were courtesy Lanil and the solitary try was scored by skipper Indrajith Coomarasawmy. They also beat Malaysia 12-6 and Laos 39-3. As a result this side was placed number two in Asia in 1974, which turned out to be a fine performance.
His father inspired him to maintain his fitness where he did regular road running every day in the evening. In 1975, he had other ideas and finally decided to come to Colombo again to don Havelock’s jersey under the captaincy of Shafi Jainudeen. He continued playing for them until 1978 under the captaincy of Thajone Savangan, Jeffrey De Jong and finally under Anton Benedict’s captaincy in 1978, where they won the Triple Crown.. Due to his job commitment, he swapped clubs to join Uva and Dimbula. He was selected to represent Sri Lanka at the Asiad and went on to play at the Hong Kong(HK) sevens until 1980, where he was appointed as the captain of the National team for both HK sevens and the Asiad held in Taiwan. He also was fortunate to be a member in the inaugural HK Sevens team in 1976 under the captaincy of Indrajith Coomarswamy including Dr Maiya Gunasekera, Mohan Balasuriya, Ronald Rodrigo,G B Gunadasa, Jeffrey de Jong and T A Omerdeen.
The unforgettable moment in his rugby career was when he got selected to play as a second overseas player along with Michael Jayasekera for the Invitation International Rugby XV captained by Wallabies skipper Mark Loane in 1978 against the Hong Kong national side. The Invitation International Rugby XV consisted of several international players who participated at the Hong Kong Sevens. This match was played after the Hong Kong sevens which
their team won by 18-10. The winning team’s score was off a goal, three tries against a goal and a try. He was instrumental in scoring a try to put them ahead at one point.
After hanging up his boots, he served as a National Rugby selector in 2008 and went on to serve in the SLRFU Committee in 1996 and 1997 as the Up-Country representative. In 1994 and 2005, he was appointed as the interim President of the Uva Provincial Rugby Union. In 1993 was responsible along with Nalin De Silva in organizing an All-Island Inter-Club Rugby Sevens Tournament in Badulla for which Kishin Butani gave him a big hand.
In the 1980s he was invited to captain the Trinity College Old Boys(TCOB) team against the Old Royalists captained by Dr. Maiya Gunasekera. This match was played in connection with the opening of the Royal College Sports Complex at Reid Avenue. He also led the TCOB team against the Old Isipathanians captained by Nalin de Silva at a charity match organized by the Old Isipathanians.
His coaching stint started with Dharmaraja College Rugger team on two occasions in 1974 and 1980. After four decades of planting in Sri Lanka he moved to Africa in 2013 to continue his Tea Planting career in Mozambique and Rwanda. He returned to Sri Lanka at the end of 2019 and presently is managing a Tea Factory as General Manager owned by a former Trinitian and renowned Up country Rugby player Jivaka Atapattu.
He is married to Sandra who was an athlete at Good Shepherd Convent, Kandy, and is the loving father of two sons Devaka and Dulanga who went to Trinity and a daughter Yoshani who was a good athlete at Ladies College Colombo.
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