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| Sunday, 9 February 2003 |
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Our rugby is more like football, says Harry Goonetilleke by LAL GUNESEKERA "Not only rugby at Air Force, but Sri Lanka too has hit rock bottom. Example has to come right from the top. When I was the Commander, I used to rush to Katunayake soon after work in Colombo to take practices and give the players the nutrition and nourishment needed soon afterwards. I watch rugby only on the television screen, and that too only international games. Local rugby is more like football now. Always kicking the ball and no open play. Possession should be 90 per cent of the game, unless its tactical". These were the comments made by one of the most dedicated and successful rugby coaches - Air Vice Marshall Harry Goonetilleke (retired), who is known as the Guru and father of Air Force rugby. He got men who had never touched the oval ball and trained them to become classy players. He played for Royal. One such example is the 1965 Air Force side. They emerged 'B' Division champions with only about eight players who had played the game - the rest were mere raw recruits. They played in the Clifford Cup final that year against the mighty CR & FC who had the services of players in the calibre of Sari de Sylva (captain), Eric Roles, Hiranjan Perera, Mohan Sahayam, Tony Sirimanne, Didacus de Almeida, Tony Rankine, Mohamed Azain, Van Twest, Hadji Omar, C. H. Seneviratne and Rohan Abeysundera - all national players. Air Force was led by Jeff Ratnam, and among the others who had some rugby background were Eddie Buell, Khalid and Maheswaran. Knowing the attacking capabilities of the CR three-quarters, Harry planned out counter moves to paralyse the CR threes with the inexperienced halves combination of Buell and Maheswaran to counter CR's Sirimanne and Sahayam together with the Air Force third-row of Khalid, Sela and Kandula Abeysekera to "nail" the CR threes. They were successful, but CR won 11-3. But Harry is yet proud of this achievement. This side also beat Army 6-3 when the soldiers were led and coached by the late General Denzil Kobbekaduwa. Harry said, "The Army hierarchy had bought tickets for the final, but were disappointed, but amazed to see the Airmen win. Another great achievement that Harry still speaks about is that he was responsible for coaching five Sri Lanka captains when they were in the Air Force. Jeff Ratnam, Rohan Gunaratne, Mohan Balasuriya, Tikiri Marambe and Nalin de Silva. He also talks proudly about the late Archibald Perera, who requested Harry to coach St. Peter's who were led by Frank Hubert. The late Bertie Dias too invited Harry to impart his knowledge to the Army side as well. One may remember that both Archibald Perera and Bertie Dias were very successful coaches during their era. Two other achievements of Harry's is that both Lofty Perera and Rohan Gunaratne (a couple of the numerous players) never touched a rugby ball before being recruited to the Air Force. Both ended up as top line-out specialists and went on to play for Air Force and Sri Lanka with distinction. Both were Sri Lanka basketball players too. The former turned out for CR, while the latter played for Police and led them as well. Another achievement is that he changed Jeff Ratnam's position from scrum-half to centre when he joined the Air Force. Ratnam, who came from Thurstan, went on to play later for Havelocks and Sri Lanka too with distinction. There was also Viper Gunaratne (a crash tackling, third-row forward) and Charles Wijewardene (full back and 'ace' place-kicker). It was Harry, who 'polished up' their game. Harry Goonetilleke was also a respected referee and some of his contemporaries were Malcolm Wright, Ashey Cader, Darley Ingleton, Percy Perera and Bertie Dias to name a few. He was the President of the Referees Society too at one stage and was instrumental in getting down an international referee attached to the RAF, Air Commodore Larry Lamb and Royal Army's Major Chris Tyley to conduct seminars and update the local referees. Harry spends most of his time now with the Ex-Servicemen's Association and Ranaviru Family Counselling Service. One of his sons, Shirantha, who was also in the Air Force, died in action in 1995. He played rugby for Royal. The other son, Air Commodore Roshan, is the Base Commander at Katunayake and No. 3 in the Air Force. He played rugby for St. Peter's. One of Harry's daughter's Shiromani, was the Games Captain at Holy Family Convent, while the other daughter Sharmini, is employed in Bangladesh. |
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