Yoshitha Rajapaksa to help develop Ananda rugby

by Sajeewa Jayakody

Former Sri Lanka rugby captain and current Hong Kong Rugby Sevens member Lt Yoshitha Rajapaksa has been appointed as the head coach of the Ananda College Colombo rugby outfit for the 2014 Singer Schools League Rugby season.

Lt Rajapaksa, who represents Sri Lanka Navy rugby team, which clinched a rugby double with the League Rugby Title and the prestigious Clifford Cup for the first time in the domestic rugby history. Lt Rajapaksa with former Vidyartha, Navy and Sri Lanka Number Eight Sumedha Malawena as the assistant coach have extended their support to Ananda College without any reward.

Ananda College, Sri Lanka's leading Buddhist school , which has produced many outstanding ruggerites of the calibre of Asoka Jayasena, Janaka de Silva, Asela de Silva, Dinesh Sanjeewa, Samantha Gunawardene, Yuganthara Karunaratne, Theja Dharmaratne, Razali Noordeen, Ananda Subasinghe, who excelled in club rugby with some of them going onto don the national jersey.

Ananda's rugby reached great heights in 1985 when captained by Janaka de Silva, they beat Sri Lanka's two top rugby playing schools, Trinity (6-4) and Royal (4-0) and went down fighting (0-3) to Isipathana.

Three years later, led by Asela de Silva, the Anandians scored a smashing 14-4 win over S Thomas' in the quarter-finals of the R Premadasa Trophy before going down fighting to the invincible Royal team by 6-11 in the semi-finals.

But in recent years Ananda rugby has been on the decline but they are bound to emerge as a force to be reckoned with once again. Colonel Mahendra Fernando was appointed Rugby Union President of the college recently.

Colonel Fernando, who is the Commander Close Protection and PSO to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, played rugby for Ananda College during 1987-89.

With the new boost, the parents wish their children playing rugby for the school and the College has a over 60 players for the First XI pool at the moment.

"When we were appointed, Ananda College rugby pool had only 15 members but now we have around 60 players to compete in the First XI and it's tremendous change of the college," said Colonel Fernando.

The sponsorship ceremony was held recently at the College premises with the participation of Ananda College Principal Kithsiri Liyanagamage, Rugby President Union Colonel Mahendra Fernando, rugby master-in-charge Deepal Peirispala, junior rugby master-in-charge UGL Nandadeva, former rugby master-in-charge Dhammika Ranatunga.

Laugfs Holdings (Pvt) Ltd has offered a two-million sponsorship for this rugby season at a ceremony held recently at Kularatne Hall. From their very first game of the season, Ananda College routed St John's College, Nugegoda by 47-5 and will play against St Benedict's College, Kotahena tomorrow (Monday) at 4.30pm at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo.