by A Special Sports Correspondent

At a time when Sri Lanka is getting ready to face challenges at the upcoming Asian Rugby Tournament’s Division 1 Segment our minds run back to the times when these islanders were competing against the best teams in Asia.

Just for the record Sri Lanka is now forced to work its way up from the Division 1 segment and qualify for a slot among the best four teams who are playing in a segment known as the ‘Asia Rugby Championship’. Currently the teams in that group- which can be billed as the best four teams of Asia- comprises South Korea, Hong Kong China, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). On a sarcastic note, I’m sure Sri Lanka remembers playing in this division and not being disgraced; even though they went down fighting on some occasions. There were also many victories in this division for Sri Lanka which produced sweet memories for the rugby loving islanders.

The years which this writer wants to recall are 2005 and 2006 and Sri Lanka’s best players were put through their paces by New Zealand born Coach George Simpkins; who was contracted as the national coach till the World Cup Qualifiers ended. He was given a contract by Sri Lanka Rugby which was at that time headed by former national player Priyantha Ekanayake. Luckily for Sri Lanka rugby there was no rift between the Kandy ‘elite’ and the Colombo ‘camp’. Hence national rugby didn’t suffer. Whatever challenges that cropped up as national assignments were fed with the best resources.

This was a time when Sri Lanka had players like skipper Sajith Mallikarachchi, Viraj Prashantha, Kishore Jehan, Pavithra Fernando, Dilanka Wijesekare, Dushanth Lewke, Amjad Buksh, Fazil Marija, Pradeep Liyanage, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Chamara Vithanage, Thushara Silva, J.Ranaweera, Dilan Ekanayake, Rajith Jayasundara, Anuradha Dharmatilake, Asanga Rodrigo, Anuranga Walpola, M.Sherifdeen, Dhanushka Perera, Zulki Hamid, Rajiv Ganapathy and D. Pushpakumra to name a few. More players were inserted to the squad as Sri Lanka gained momentum and experience in facing this world cup qualifying challenge. The first assignment for Sri Lanka was against Thailand and it was an ‘away’ match; played in the hot and humid village called Suphan Buri; which is 150 km away from Bangkok. Just a few kilo metres away from Suphan Buri is ‘Kanchana Buri’ where some parts of the film ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ was filmed.

This was also the time when most of the players in the squad were at their peak; having played about a decade of rugby at senior level. The players were training mostly at CR&FC and this writer remembers hooker Viraj Prashantha making a kind of statement while casually bumping into me in the form of “If we cannot beat Thailand after all these training sessions, then we might never be capable of achieving such a feat in this lifetime”. In other words, the players were oozing with confidence and their body language said it all.

The man who made the change was Simpkin. The players were taught to think, eat and train like professionals; even though there not one among them who was even a semi professional at that time baring the pint-sized Silva who was employed in the Army. Silva was also a serious football player and much faith was placed on him to man the last line of defence as full back.

The match was scheduled at 3 pm and the heat was killing. Sri Lanka struggled hard to cross the Thailand goal line and when no one could Marija sliced through the defence using individual brilliance. The scores were deadlocked 38 all at one time in the second half and the host team was threatening to spoil Sri Lanka’s hopes, but the islanders won the contest 48-38 in the end.

Sri Lanka’s next challenge was in Colombo and the team they had to face was Singapore, which at that time was an outfit that was ‘respected’ and feared. The match was scheduled at 2 pm and the aggressive style that the Lankans played their rugby in and the scorching heat that prevailed were too much for Singapore. Sri Lanka won 43-17.

Simpkin by this time had convinced the players to cut down on the quantity of rice they consumed. Healthy eating, extended hours in the gym plus the focus on the goal (which was looking at participation at the international stage) lifted the thinking of the players a few notches up. Everyone knew that playing in an actual world cup was out of the question, but doing well at the ‘qualifiers’ and seeing what distance the side would go produced enough fuel to keep the players motivated.

The next challenge was against Kazakhstan which was a two-leg match with the first game scheduled in the freezing mountain city of ‘Almaty’. The Sri Lankans were given a hard time starting from preparations and the place given to the visitors to warm up was a defunct basketball court. The conditions were too cold for Sri Lanka and the result was a 25-19 defeat; Sri Lanka was beaten, but still was in with a chance when they hosted the rematch because the deference in points was just six. Simpkin worked the players in the gym and field and he drilled the thought into the players’ minds that this assignment could be successful if they thought rugby was an ‘endurance game’. Many running drills were added to the training schedule. So, Sri Lanka was going to play running rugby and avoid unwanted contact with the opposition; research done on the Kazakhstan players showed that the majority of them were mine workers and hard as rocks. This is the advantage of having a foreigner as coach who knows the opposition as much as his own chargers. Within the first quarter of the game, played at Longden Place, when the Kazakhstan players could not take the beating, they got from the smaller made Sri Lankans, they got into a fisticuff with the host players and the game was stopped for a few minutes. The Sri Lankans chose to be beaten and bruised in the brawl and chose to be focus on the game. The rest was history and Sri Lanka ran out worthy winners with a score of 24-12 in the second game.

The next assignment, however tough, had to be faced and done with. Hong Kong was a tower of strength in the Asian circuit and always proved a hurdle that Sri Lanka never could clear. To make matters worse the match was arranged to be played on a turf comprising artificial grass. After a physical game the Sri Lankans went down fighting 45-14; bowing out of the running in the world cup qualifiers. In the remaining games Japan beat Hong Kong. South Korea got the better of Hong Kong in their encounter. Japan was the only team in the 2007 world cup representing ‘Oceania/Asia after their success in the ‘qualifiers’. Back at home, New Zealand rugby legend- who was here to coach a club side- was quoted in a local newspaper saying ‘Sri Lanka got excited for no reason. Everyone knew that only Japan was going to make it to the world cup from Asia’. But for the entire rugby fraternity at home thought that what its national team achieved was remarkable!

So, this is a small piece of the proud history Sri Lanka boasts in rugby. This is a side which locked horns with the best of Asia. Sri Lanka needs to work its way up from Division 1 and slot itself in its rightful group which is the ‘Asia Rugby Championship’.