Summa Navaratnam passed away on October 19, 2023. May 21, 2025 marks his 100th birth anniversary. My first interactions with Mr. Summa Navartnam was in 1977 when he was coaching the Royal College 1st XV and we were attending under-17 practices. We had just entered Royal College from Royal Junior School after passing the 1976 NCGE examination. The under-17 coach was Air Vice Marshal Harry Gunathilake but Summa didn’t hesitate to teach us a few tricks of the trade while in the grounds. When we grew up to be 1st XV players ourselves (1979 and 1980), he became a close mentor and coach to us. And as we moved on in life, we slowly turned into friends.

Around 2010, when he wanted to formalise the Summa Navaratnam Royal Junior Rugby Academy with its own constitution and so on, he entrusted that task to me. This work brought us closer, and I soon became his de facto physician. It enhanced our conversations and interactions. I realised this was an extraordinary man, whose values and life experiences should not go waste. Here are some things he has told me.

Royal in the 1940s

The year was 1939, when World War II started after Germany’s invasion of Poland drove Great Britain and France to declare war against Hitler. It was also the year that Royal appointed Mr. E.L Bradby as its principal, a name that resonates so loudly in the school’s rugby discourse now. Royal was not the school of today, with thousands of students. It was only in 1940 that its roll passed 625 students.This was also the year when Summa, at 14-years-old, started playing rugger. After seeing him run, the House rugger captain asked him to come for rugger practices and to join the House team. All students of Royal belonged to four Houses at the time: Hartley, Harward, Marsh and Boake (Reed House came to being in 1970). Summa played for Boake House. Inter-House events are among colleagues and are often stepping stones to represent the Royal and compete with other schools. Summa also represented his House and the school in boxing.Summa was an athlete before he became a rugby player. He had demonstrated his speed as a sprinter when he ran in events as under-12, then under-13 and under-14. Summa recalls a year when he was also the most senior rugger player in the House team. Athletics was in the third term and rugger was in the second term. So he was able to take part both in athletics as well as in rugby for school starting in 1940, a practice he continued till 1943.

That year was the pinnacle of Summa’s performances at Royal. He was the Boake House captain, the House boxing captain, as well as the House athletics captain. He was also the House rugger captain and captained Royal College in the second game against Trinity. Summa humbly claimed that, “I was made captain as the captain of the first leg, C.O Foenander, got injured.” This was the year when the tournament was split into two legs and Royal beat Trinity in both. In the 22 matches played between Trinity and Royal from 1920 and 1944, Royal had won only three games–one in 1941, and the two legs in 1943 during Summa’s senior year.

Summa recalled that, in 1943, Royal won both games and that, in 1944, we lost both. It was in 1945 that the Bradby Shield was given. According to Summa, Principal Mr. Bradby wanted to award the shield in 1944 itself: “He thought most players who played in 1943 would be there. But out of the 20 odd boys who came for practice, 15 left and moved on in their careers. You see, when one person leaves, being friends, they all leave together.” Many of those boys went to university and some ended up as doctors. Royal was left with just five experienced players and that, too, three regulars and two reserves. “So he decided to hold it for another year, instead of getting thrashed,” Summa said. Mr. Bradby was right. Royal lost to Trinity 15:0 in the first leg and 17:0 in the second. So the Bradby shield came to be awarded for the first time in 1945.”Because of the war, only Trinity continued to play rugger,” Summa reminisced. “That is one reason why the Bradby shield was awarded, to keep that enthusiasm going. Before the war in 1940 and 41, we played St Peter’s, Zahira and Trinity. Those were the only four schools playing.” In 1942 and 1943, Summa could remember only Royal playing against Trinity. At the time, Ceylon was badly affected by the war.

College Colours

Royal College has inherited the English tradition of awarding Colours to students in school who have excelled in annual sports activities. This is considered the greatest recognition the school awards to sportsmen. Receiving Colours in one sport is enough to make you a hero, not only during one’s school career, but throughout life among the Royal College community. As much as receiving a prize at the Royal College prize-giving is a dream of the academically inclined Royalists, earning Royal College Colours is the dream of every sportsman.

Summa received Colours in not just one sport but three: athletics, rugger and boxing. He played cricket for the school but did not excel in it. Summa also took part in most other games for Boake House. For instance, he distinctly remembers playing tennis for the House team.

Summa said he coached Royal College from 1973 to 1983, at a stretch. He got the support of others such as Malik Samarawickrema and Dr. Fred Perera. Before that, too, he had coached Royal, on and off. He also remembered coaching Isipatana, St Peter’s and Wesley College, from time to time. Summa did not give up athletics after staring club rugby. “I ran till 1953 and broke the record in 1952,” he said.

When asked what he remembered of school days’ rugby, Summa spoke of 1941 when Royal for the first time beat Trinity (RC 11:TCK 3). He was humble enough to also say how Trinity got three points in the 1941 game: “I became the offender by holding on to the ball. So they gave a penalty against me and they put it over. We also beat St. Peter’s before that, five-nil or three-nil.” And he recalls a match against Zahira where, “We played Zahira College, Maradana. It was a tough fight, almost blowing each other. Two Aldens played in that match. Eric Alden was fullback and Hugh Alden was centre-three-quarter. But when we won and we came back, our bicycle tires were deflated! After beating Zahira, our tires were punctured! Zahira was the last match.”

Golden decade

The first golden decade of Royal rugby is considered to be 1971 to 1980. The Royal boys managed to keep the Bradby Shield for seven out of those 10 years. That is, three out of 10 from 1951-1960; four out of 10 between 1961-1970; four out of 10 between 1981-1990; and three between 1991 to 2000. The contributions of Summa’s predecessor, Mahesh Rodrigo, and my own coaches such as Malik Samarawickrema and Dr. Fred Perera, are most gratefully noted.

Summa’s coaching stint from 1973 to 1983 was special to him. It was in 1976 that Royal under Manik Veerakumar was unbeaten during the season and scored a mammoth 36:0 win against Trinity in the Brady first leg and 25:6 win in the second. The era 1978 to 1980 is the golden triennium of Royal rugby where they beat Trinity three years in a row [in 1980, under the captaincy of Sujanthakumar] for the first time since the beginning of the series in 1920. This record was broken only in 2004, when Royal consecutively retained the Bradby Shield for four years, under the captaincy of E.L. Dissanayake. Previously, Trinity had won six Bradbys in a row from 1952 to 1957. Trinity College dominated the early years of schools’ rugby in Sri Lanka, including the Royal-Trinity games. For example, between 1920 and 1944, they won 19 of 22 games, while Royal clinched only three.

Summa remembered three stints coaching senior rugby football at Royal. His name comes up as the Royal rugby coach as early as 1953 in the school’s archival documents. The master-in-charge of rugby was M.T Thambapillia at the time. The first leg played in Bogambara was captained by T.S. Almeida where Royal lost to Trinity 13:0. The loss of the second leg by just three points (3:0) demonstrated the ability of Summa to learn fast and adapt, a characteristic that I believe he has passed onto us. In 1954, he brought in F.D Waldock to assist him. Summa’s name next appears as the Royal coach in 1967 and 1968, followed by the golden decade, 1973 to 1983.

When asked about his final stint as Royal coach, Summa recalled that, “It started in 1973 and went on till 1983. I would have carried on if I hadn’t gone to America. After a break, I came back as rugby coordinator in Bulla’s year. If you look at his book, it will be there.” Bulla is the nickname for Mr. C.R de Silva, the Bradby-winning captain of Royal College in 1968 who later became one of Sri Lanka’s most respected Attorney-Generals and a Chairperson of the Royal Rugby Football Advisory and Management Committee.

In our many conversations, Summa Sir referred to Mr. Quentin Israel as the great coach of S. Thomas College and Mr. Berty Dias as a great coach from Trinity. They were competitors, yet good friends. He also spoke of Mr. Chalkie White, an Englishman who contributed significantly to improving the standards of rugby in schools. Summa had much regard for Bertie Dias, who is remembered by the old boys of Trinity as a skilled rugby player, coach and referee. He is considered as one of the finest sportsmen Trinity produced in the 1950s and was not only a rugby Lion but was a fine hockey player, boxer and top athlete.

The Great Royal 1976 Bradby Win

Summa Navaratnam’s best team was 1976. Royal won the 1st leg of the Bradby 36:0 and the second leg 25:6.

“Berty Dias was coaching Trinity and Kavan Rambukwella had just returned from Japan,” he narrated. “In 1976, Berty was replaced by Kavan Rambukwella for the second match because Royal had beaten Trinity 36:0. This match was to be played in Bogambara. During the first few minutes of the match starting, Kemal Dean scored for Trinity. Berty Dias would go to Bogambara and watch the Trinity boys practising from afar, through a binocular. Prof. Kemal Deen is now a surgeon. I went to see him for a consultation (and he did not charge me), and he told me this when I met him.”

Kavan has coached CR & FC and Police and Summa knew that his first tactic would be to remove the fly half. “Be hard on the fly half,” he explained. “That is, tackle him hard. So we preplanned a ploy to counter this. My instructions to our fly half was to give the ball out very fast and even put the hands up and run, showing that he has no ball. The idea was for him not to get tackled hard and injured. I used to tell Ching, our scrum half, in the first few minutes, you keep passing the ball out fast, do not do anything, and for the ball to go out to the corner, away from the centre. We did not want injuries to take place,”

“Once the initial threat is passed, and the opposite player is beaten, the ploy was for the player to run on his own and score,” he said. “We scored three tries like that. I remember well, as I introduced that ploy. So we changed the game and beat TCK 25:6 in Bogambara. That was a good year.” Running on your own, generally, was almost prohibited by Summa, except when you have beaten your opponent and the path is clear. He always stressed that “rugby was a team game where 14 men helped the 15th to score”.

The boys of 1980

Another memorable year for Summa was 1980. This is the team Summa probably kept most contact with during the last decade of life, Sujanthakumar’s year. It was a good team. We won both Bradby Shield games. Malik Samarawickrema and Dr. Fred Perera helped in a major way to focus on the game. Summa’s job was to strengthen individual player skills. Suku as he fondly called, is still an ardent supporter of Summa’s Rugby Academy.

This was the year I was the hooker. I clearly remember Summa Sir getting us to come half-an-hour before the scheduled practice time. He got me to train “hooking” with both my legs. The hooker usually throws the ball at lineouts and the ball has to be dead straight. Before practices, Summa would get us to draw 7, 9, and 11-yard spots on the ground away from the goal post, aim and hit the ball on the post at crossbar level. We had to get seven, or so, out of 10 throws to hit the post right in the middle to avoid Summa’s characteristic “che…che… che” remark.

Another technique Summa taught me was to kick properly— to drop the ball onto your foot rather than lob it up. I was never a kicker at Royal, although I had to take on that role when playing for Medical School and for Law College. Summa also advised me to “do your specialist job well before taking on other general responsibilities.” Therefore, at school rugby, I focused totally on my job as the hooker. My task in the scrum was to get the ball to the others in my team and in the lineouts, to throw the ball straight. Loose play came second. Summa had taught me that possession is everything, and that I had to get the ball to the second-row jumper without overthrowing. I also had to win the ball put into the scrums. “Hundred percent lose heads and at least a few tights heads at critical times,” he would say.

The magnanimity of Summa sir’s legacy in rugby is far beyond the words that a brief article in a Bradby souvenir can capture. If there is one thing we can do to express our gratitude to him or repay the debt we owe him, it is to help in every way the Summa Navaratnam Junior Rugby Academy he started, to thrive to enable young children to just enjoy playing the game!

by Sri Jawa Jayawardena