  Chris DHAMBARAGE
It was in the backdrop of some uncertainty that he took over the
captaincy of the Sri Lanka rugby team for the Asian Five Nations
tournament in Dubai. He had just recovered from a serious back injury
and was handed the task of safeguarding Sri Lanka rugby after several
top players had pulled out in a controversial manner.
 The cynosure of all eyes was on this dynamic flanker Pavithra
Fernando who cleared all odds and the pressure to carry Sri Lankan rugby
team into the next level with a great allround performance. His rugby
career was in the balance after having sustained a back injury while
representing his country in Kazakhastan in 2005.
He would have got paralysed due to that injury which was very
serious, but for the fact that he was rushed with no delay to the
Nawaloka Hospital for an operation.
Four years later Pavithara Fernando was back in the scene and was set
to realise his schoolboy dream of captaining the Sri Lanka team in an
international tournament.
The former Royal College ruggerite and CR and FC player led from the
front and made a huge impact as Sri Lanka came from behind to beat a
strong Thailand outfit by 51 points to 17 points after having lost the
opening fixture against Chinese Taipei 24-36. This was a tremendous
achievement considering the fact that the players had just one day of
preparation ahead of this tournament which was considered as a qualifier
for the World Cup.
Sri Lanka also managed to collect a bonus point from the game against
Chinese Taipei by virtue of scoring four tries which was a great effort
indeed.
We had to win this event to get into that top tournament.
Unfortunately, due to the problems and the last minute pull out of some
players we had to secure a place in the same group.
However, if we did not make use of any opportunity, we would have
been relegated to the bottom tier and would have been banned by the
World governing body.
If that happened then it would have taken a further two to three
years to get back into the current position. But thanks to the Sports
Minister’s strong will we succeeded in sending a side within two days
and managed to stay in the same group which is great.
 Fernando who was named the best captain in 2006 said that Sri Lanka
could have even won this tournament and would have gone into the next
level had the original squad participated.
“The players pulled out on Sunday evening when we were supposed to
leave the country on Monday and so the preparations were very poor. We
trained only for one day with 15 new players coming in but still the
morale was very good in the camp. The boys had the heart to play for the
country and they showed what they are capable of in the second match
against Thailand”.
Fernando certainly has a great amount of experience in captaincy
having led his club CR and FC in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons.
He also commended the contributions made by their stop gap coach John
Carrington during their tour to Dubai. The New Zealander who is an IRB
Level Four accredited coach in fact did a tremendous job at a short
notice and is the only one of his kind to have ever visited Sri
Lanka.Fernando said that he requested for a coach because it was a big
task for him to act as a coach, captain and manager.
“We needed a professional for the job and when I requested for a
coach the SLRFU Interim Committee spoke with John Carrington who was
available at the CR and FC. Since most of the players were taken from CR
and FC at the last moment there was opportunity for him to go because
there were no practices here. He accepted the job and that led us to do
well against Thailand.
He put together a simple game plan in a short time and we felt like a
new team altogether. He made a huge difference for us in this
tournament”, concluded a happy Sri Lankan captain. |
