Miracle on the field

Only Divine help and a doctor at hand could have saved the life of Sri Lanka rugby star Maurice de Silva after an erratic female athlete's javelin pierced through his neck pinning him to the ground:

by Hafiz Marikar

It was a gory and one of the most gruesome incidents in the world on the field of play and one man, Sri Lanka rugby player Maurice de Silva survived it all to recall that chilling and horrifying moment at Havelock Park.

It took place in 1960 when Maurice had his neck pierced by a javelin which entered one side and came out through the other side, pinning him to the ground. This was caused by an erratic throw from a female athlete who was practicing on the adjoining Burgher Recreation Club (BRC) ground.

Divine help was with Maurice as he had a miraculous escape. The successful operation was done by the Havelocks coach Dr. Larry Foenander who had team-mates Carl Fernando and David Hoffman to carry Maurice to his car and rush him to hospital with the javelin still in the neck. Unbelievably, the javelin had missed the jugular vein by a hair's breadth and thank Heavens Maurice lived to tell this gory tale and was back in action on the rugby field a few months later.

The former Peterite, Havelocks and Sri Lanka player Maurice visited Kandy and was at the residence of DC Abeyaratne. Both were members of the Park Club in the 1960s and a bump into Maurice a few weeks back at Havelocks where he was in the company of Glen Vanlangenberg, Jeyer Rodriguesz, Dan Rutnam, Baba Soujah, Carl Fernando and BC Henricus' son the 1954 Havies captain Basil brought the past back to life.

Maurice recalled his wonderful memories in Kandy. He was invited by E.W. Balasuriya to coach the Kandy Lake Club and being a playing member of the team strode a glorious path in his rugby career starting with St. Peter's College in 1954 from where he moved to Havelock Sports Club in 1959 and in the year 1963 joined Kandy Lake Club.

He played in the "B" division tournament organized by the Ceylon Rugby Football Union and within three years helped the club with his wide experience to win the "B" division title and gain promotion to "A" division. Maurice played mostly on the wing, but later in Kandy he played as inside three-quarter alongside the famous Didacus de Almeida.

Both of them ran rings around the Colombo Clubs in elevating Kandy Lake Club to the 'A' division. Maurice was a mastermind with great potential and skill levels using his experience to get a game plan to suit the team and play to their strength.

What was interesting was that except for Farouk Dole, Niyas Majeed (St. Anthony's) and Alex Larzarus (Trinity) al lother players had no rugby experience at all, but responded to his coaching and played the game with a lot of fire.

Maurice was a master in running side-stepping, scissor movements and dummying. He also paved the way for two players Mahes Sabaratnam and S. Wijesooriya to represent the National team as wing three-quarters. Maurice was in the forefront and sported the first Kandy Lake Club (Black and Red) jersey, together with Didacus de Almeida, A. Ettipola, Tony de Silva, George Thambiraja, Maurice Windus, Niyas Majeed, Carl Fernando, Nihal Jayatilleke, Hector Galuge, Mahes Sabaratnam, Farook Dole (as the captain), Jadi Dissanayake, Iswan Omar, Alex Lazarus and Shafie Jainudeen.

At Havelocks he was among some of the great players of that time in Dr. Hubert Aloysius, Nimal Maralande, Dickie Jayatilleke, Y.C. Chang, Ken de Joodt, Mike de Alwis, Conrad Ephrams, Maurice Anghie, Dr. Trevor Anghie, L. Dias Sumanasekera and Gamini Fernando as well as enjoying the Clifford Cup victory by Havies in 1961.

In the 1960s Maurice helped Kandy Lake Club, which was regarded as an upstart by the Colombo clubs, as well as the Kandy Sports Club. He shaped many a player and showed them how to play coordinated good rugby like a pack of terriers. He coached St. Anthony's College Katugastota to beat Trinity College for the first time in 1972.

Thereafter he also coached Isipathana College, S. Thomas' College, Wesley College and St. Peter's College. Today Maurice is pleased to hear that rugby has become the number one sport in Kandy and the most popular sport in the island domestically.

He said that the main reason for rugby to thrive is the enthusiasm of big sponsors with top class gentlemen involved and helping in its progress and promoting the sport without any ulterior motives or personal gain.

He witnessed the HARFA rugby tournament and was impressed.