School Rugby plays a pivotal role in a person’s career to progress as a renowned player. Some of them might have attended more than one school in acquiring their knowledge of the game while concentrating on academic studies due to various reasons. Chula Susantha was another player who played for the country in handling the oval shaped ball before representing two schools one in Colombo and another in Kandy.
Chula was born in 1983 in Mount Lavinia and his father was late Saman Krishantha and mother is Kusuma Jayasinghe. He started his primary education with Isipathana and completed higher studies with Kingswood College, Kandy. From his younger days, he had a dream of becoming a top sportsman where he had a liking to play rugby. With his school teams, he had a charismatic junior rugby career, where they went on to snatch several championships commencing with the schools under-13 team under his first coach Shamly Nawaz followed by Janaka as the under-15 under coach. The Isipathana under-13 team won the All Island division-one tournament in 2001 which was retained in 2003 as well.
They went on to win the under-15 inter school knockout tournament in 2003 while winning several other Championships including the Western Province Schools Tournament, Thompson and Kings Cup in 2004 in under-16 age category and the under-17 Milo schools tournament.
The turning point in his rugby career was in 2006, when he crossed over to Kingswood to compete in senior rugby that season. His rugby career took on a new dimension and his coaches were Motilal Jayatilleke and Ronnie Ibrahim who were very supportive of him during his tenure there.
He had the opportunity of playing in several positions there including the berths of winger, centre, fly half and full back depending on the requirement and the situation.
He also had the opportunity to represent the Sri Lanka Schools team at the Singer Sri Lanka Airlines Sevens to grab the ‘Plate Championships’ in 2007 and 2008, which enabled him to gain the all-important exposure to lay a placid platform for his career further. He was awarded the Kingswood school colours for his performance as a rugby player in under-19 age group in 2007/08 season. He was later selected to represent the Sri Lanka Junior Rugby team under the coaching of Sanath Martis at the ARFU Junior Championship in 2007.
After his fruitful school career, he joined the Police Rugby team in 2008. While he was competing there he had the National call in 2009 and represented the Sri Lanka Rugby team that year He was awarded the Sri Lanka Police colours in 2008.
He then joined the Navy team in 2009 where his school coach Ronnie Ibrahim was in charge as the head coach with Yoshitha Rajapaksa being the Captain, who was very supportive of him. In 2011, they won the Caltex Rugby League where the Navy team was able to defeat Kandy SC 12-11 in a closely contested game. Navy won the Defence Services Trophy and the Clifford Cup too where he was awarded the Sri Lanka Navy colours. He was delighted to record his first and only scoring opportunity for the Sri Lanka team at the 2011 HSBC Asian Five Nations Championship match against Japan conducted in Sri Lanka. During his tenure with the National team he was a member of the Sri Lanka rugby pool in 2009. He was a member of the National team which won the HSBC Shanghai Sevens ‘Plate Championship’ in 2012, was a member of the team which won the HSBC Sevens ‘Plate Championship played in India in 2012 and the HSBC Asian Sevens Series ‘Plate Championship’ in 2012 by beating Thailand 46-17 in the final played in Singapore.
In 2013 he was able to represent Sri Lanka under coach Nilfer Ibrahim at the HSBC Asian Sevens Championships in Thailand and Hong Kong which served as the qualifying round tournament, where they once again annexed the ‘Plate Championship’.
Due to a knee injury, he was sidelined from the game for quite some time which shattered all his future endeavours and the biggest dreams in reaching the top in rugby representing the country.
After recovering from that injury, he represented the Army team under the captaincy of Rohitha Rajapaksa in 2015 and under the coaching of Mothilal Jayatilleke where they once again were able to defeat the Kandy team. In 2013, played for Central Kings at the 2011 ‘Carlton Sevens’ where they won a trophy. In 2013 played for team Stallion under the captaincy of Rohitha Rajapaksa and won a trophy.
He joined Mercantile sector through Access group and played for them to win the Mercantile Trophy twice in the year 2015 and 2016. In 2017/18 season, he moved to play for CH and FC under the leadership of Rohitha Rajapaksa.
He has some unforgettable memories beginning with the tries scored against Japan in Sri Lanka and at the Hong Kong Sevens qualifying tournament in Thailand. Playing in the Carlton Sevens tournament in 2013 with team Stallions.
In his 19-year career handling the rugby ball commencing from school was able to don the National jersey for seven years for which he is justifiably proud of.
He wants to show his sincere gratitude to his late father who guided him to play school rugby and thank everyone who supported him in various ways at Isipathana, Kingswood, club and at National level.
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