Japana Jayawardena was a fine ruggerite at Trinity, Army and for
Lanka
by Hafiz Marikar
Brig. J.P.A. (Japana) Jayawardena, who played for Trinity College in
1966 under Glen Valangenberg as a scrum half, was a very knowledgeable
player. This combination of Glen at fly-half and Japana turned out to be
a fire combination.
"Japana" as he was affectionately known, won his rugby at Trinity
along along with Alex Lazarus, C.A. Chitty, M. de Silva, Shafie
Jainudeen, R.T. Siriwardene,. P.S. Sundaralingam and R.W. Tilakartne. He
was lucky to win the coveted 'Rugby Lion', along with Glen Valangenberg
and P.S. Sundaralingam.
In 1966 during the time Japana played, Trinity won the "Bradby
Shield" by beating Royal. In the 'first leg' it was 'tie', with the
scores reading 3 points each at Longden Place and then in the
'second-leg' at Bogambara, Trinity won 8-3, both matches were refereed
by A. Perera. That year Trinity also beat Zahira, St. Peters, Wesley and
St. Anthony's, the St. Josephs game was a draw and Trinity lost to S.
Thomas'.
In 1966 Trinity was coached by Percy Madugalle and the team was made
out of players like Glen Valngenberg (Capt), Shafie Jainudeen, J.P.A. "Japana"
Jayawardene, M. de Silva, R.S. Howie, M. Jiffery, B.K. Jirasainghe, G.
Weerasinghe,S. Jayasekara, C.A. Chitty, Alex Lazarus, Ajith Abeyarthne,
P.S. Sundaralingam, R.W. Tilakarthne, N.T.B. Disanayake.
After leaving school, Japana played for Havelock Sports Club and then
he joined the Sri Lanka Army and did yeoman service for their rugby. He
also played for the Defense Services and Sri Lanka.
He was in the first ever Army Cup final team, in history of Army
rugby and it was in 1973. It was the first time that the Army had came
into a cup final and their oponents were Police. It was after eleven
years after coming into big time rugby that they came up too the finals.
The Army were brimming with confidence after beating the CR and FC.
It was a close match in the final and it ended in a 19-all draw and they
were dedared joint champs.
That year, the Army team was led by that famous footballer S.P de
Sylva, and the rest of players were; Jayantha Weerasinghe, Basheer
Musafer, Reginald de Zilva, N.P. Amaradasa, Japana Jayawardena, Haren
Malwatte, S. Ruparatne, M. Rodrigo, M.F. Fernando, T.N. Jayah, G. Edwin,
Saliya Udugama, Jayantah Wickramatunge and K.P. Weerasinghe.
The Army's second Cup Final appearance came three years later, in
1975. That was against another service team Air Force, in that Cup
Final, too, Japana Jayawardena was in action. In 1975, the Airmen
entered the Cup Final by beating Kandy Sports Club led by Iswan Omar on
injury time.
So, this Cup Final as played in September, and the Army team led by
Saliya Udugama was able to win the Trophy beating the Airmen by 4 points
too 3, in a thrilling game of rugby at Longden Place.
This 1975 Cup winning Army team was made out of M.F. Fernando,
Alphonso Rodrigo, S. Mohamed, A. Dunstan, Rex Rahim, K.P. Weerasinghe,
Saliya Udugama, S. Chandra, Japana Jayawardena, Haren Malwatte, N.P.
Amaradasa, Basheer Musafer, S. Jayasinghe, G.B.Gunadasa and S.P. de
Sylva. In 1979 Army won the Presidents Trophy under the guidance
Frenchmen Jan C. Vlaskam and captained by Trinitian Daya Ratnayake,
Japana Jayawardena was the Rugby Secretary of the Army team, that year
they beat the strong Havelock Sports Club to win the 'plum'. Japana
Jayewardena was a fine coach, he coached his old school Trinity College,
Army team and groomed several players, some of them had never ever seen
a rugger ball, till they came to Japana and then they then the Defence
Services came to the defence services team. Japana was also Manager of
the Sri Lanka team.
Japana was Secretary and later Chairman of the SLRFU in 1994, then
the President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society, Chairman National
Selection Committee, was Chairman of Defence Services and Army rugger.
President of the Central Province Rugby Football Union.
At present, he is the private secretary to the Minister of Mass Media
and can be seen at matches, mostly when Trinity College plays. |
