It is rare to witness a player occupying several positions in the pack, in the game of rugby, unless he has some extraordinary talent with well-maintained fitness levels, to play for quite a long time. Brahakmana Mudiyanselage Dharmapala was one of them who never held a rugby ball in his school career but later turned out to be an exceptional player during a career spanning almost two decades including clubs and at National level.
Dharmapala was born in 1967, in a remote village in the outskirts of Wariyapola in Kurunegala district. He was called as ‘Dharma’ in the sporting circles and his father was Appuhami Brahakmana and mother was Ukkamma. He was born with eight other siblings which included five sisters and three brothers. Due to his living area, he was admitted to Horrombuwa College,
Wariyapola until grade five and was later enrolled at Sri Sumangla College, Wariyapola, where he ended up completing his G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination. He was unable to continue further studies due to the burden of his family where he was forced to hunt for a job to take care of them. One of his elder brothers was already in the Sri Lanka Police, and at the age of 18 years, he decided to join the Sri Lanka Army Singha Regiment.
Dharmapala engaged in Putt Shot and Discus throw in the under-15 and was also active in the game of volleyball in the under-17 age categories, . He finally joined the Army in 1987 and was included to the Boxing team of the Army in Heavy weight category. He became a highly skilled boxer and was called to the National Boxing pool which he refused to join due to various reasons. In 1987, Major Jaliya Nammuni serving as the commanding officer had observed him closely and entrusted him to another colleague, Captain Wickremasinghe in his regiment, who was in charge of rugger to include Dharmapala to the Army rugby pool. As a novice in handling the oval shaped ball, he was a bit reluctant to play due to lack of knowledge of the game. He was initially coached by Colonel Kalu Weerasinghe and subsequently, P.G. Gunawardena, a well-known figure in the rugby arena was instrumental in transforming him into a top player. Brigadier Japana Jayawardena and General Sarath Foneska played a pivotal role in making him comfortable and gave the necessary support to continue his career, which was interrupted on various occasions due to the civil war, where the Army kept away from playing competitive rugby. From 1987 to 2004, he donned the Army jersey playing in all positions in the pack which was a unique achievement..
During the disturbances in the country, he was released to play for Havelocks from 1989 to 1994 at his peak. Then he was requested by then Army Commander to cross over to the hill capital to lock horns for Kandy in the 1995/96 season while he was in the Army. He captained the Army rugby team for two years in 1996 and 1997 seasons. Ajith Abeyratne and Asanga Seneviratne also coached him in the Army. In 1990, he got the National call to represent the country and occupied all the positions as a utility player in the pack, and played for the Sri Lanka team for 13 years with distinction
He played for ‘Bridge/Ends’ club in Wales in1997 and continued to play in all tournaments which the National team took part in his tenure as a player. The other unique feature of his career was playing for Sri Lanka in five Rugby Asiads consecutively starting from 1998. Jeff Matheson, Ajith Abeyratne, Tony Amit, retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke, Ana Saranapala and Late George Simpkin were his coaches in the Sri Lanka team
After his retirement he started his coaching career with the Army sevens rugby team and coached in 1992/1993 seasons, coached several schools like Prince of Wales (1996 - 1997), Maliyadewa (2005 - 2008), St. Anne’s (2008 - 2010 and 2014 - 2016), St. Anthony’s forward coach (2017 - 2018), Air Force forwards coach (2009), Sri Lanka team supporting coach (2009 - 2010), Sri Sumangala College Kandy head coach (2016 - 2019)
Under his coaching he started rugby at Wariyapola Rugby and Sports Club in 2013, At present he is coaching St. Sylvester’s and Singha Regiment in the Army. He worked as Wayamba rugby development officer (2005 - 2015). He followed a IRB level -2 coaching course in Australia 2002, a high performance and rugby sevens level-1 and level -2 coaching course in Malaysia while completing a referring course in 2004. His wife is Kumari and has two sons, Bawantha playing rugby for Trinity and Nimnada while Vishmi is the elder daughter who has graduated in Australia while Nishadini is the other daughter.
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