They built their castle brick by brick
The tremendous success enjoyed by this year’s Dharmaraja rugger team is the stuff of dreams. ‘B’ Division champs one year and ‘A’ Division champions the next. Quite bewildering. In an attempt to find out what contributed to this staggering run of success, the Sunday Times spoke to the Captain of the team, the Principal, Coach and several others who were big name players in Kandy and Sri Lankan rugby.
Dharmaraja in their final league match against Royal in Colombo. - Pix by Amila Gamage.
Rochana Hettiarachchi has that over-the-moon feeling, having led a terrific Rajan side that won seven games out of nine and remained unconquered. He says that they had three targets for the season – the sevens, the league and the President’s Trophy. The sevens loss in the semi-final made them more determined and they duly accomplished their second objective. The third is probably in the pipeline.
The skipper says they went match by match, changing their pattern of play according to their opponents. The first few weeks saw Trinity topping the table by a bonus point. But their loss to the Josephians gave the Rajans more than a glimmer of hope and fresh impetus. His team was disciplined in their play and received only three yellow cards all season.
The rugby basics were dinned into them early on by Ananda Kasthuriarachchi (the present coach of Kingswood) and the Rajans became Under 15 Central Province champions. They ended up reaching the All Island semi-finals.
Former Sri Lankan Captain Radhika Hettiarachchi, the coach, says that this success is the outcome of around eight months of hard training, Discipline, punctuality, fitness and the importance of the team ethic were focused on. Asked what the toughest games were, he points to the Science College and St. Joseph’s matches which were won by one and two points respectively. The team struggled in the first half against Science but came good in the second. Even the Trinity match which was drawn saw the Rajans on top for 70 per cent of the time.
The Principal, W.M. Keerthiratne is of the opinion that the team set great stone by discipline. He says they had a young coach 
(moreover a current national player) who was actively involved with the team in their practice sessions. He is extremely pleased that the Old Boys (the Rugby Wing) got involved, providing the nutrition, the jerseys and organized their travel arrangements. In Colombo they stayed at the SLFI.
Priyantha Ekanayake says he his proud to see the Rajans coming up. He feels that the passion of the Old Boys made it happen. They provided a proper structure. Unlike a team like Trinity, which is invariably at or near the top of the table, the Rajans, until now, hadn’t really hit it big.
L.V. Ekanayake, a former Sri Lankan player and brother of Priyantha, feels that the Rajans were the best side. They seemed to have a plan and knew what they were doing. He believes that fullback Thilina Wijesinghe, Skipper and fly half Rochana Hettiarachchi, and Centers Buvaneka Udangamuwa and Dilantha Madusanka were the brains behind the success of the side. The team clicked after the Trinity match.
The Rajan success may be a bitter pill for ex-Sri Lanka Sevens specialist and current Trinity coach Nilfer Ibrahim. However he is fulsome in his praise. The Rajans had some good players and Thilina Wijesinghe was outstanding. His play is like that of Nalaka Weerakkody – (High praise indeed!) Nilfer says the Rajans should have won the Trinity game. They improved match by match after that. The forwards, probably, were not as efficient as the backs. When the back division got the ball, more often than not they scored. The work in the set pieces was not bad. Incidentally, Nilfer coached the Rajans to ‘B’ Division honours in 2007.
Former Sri Lanka player Sanjay Amunugama, who turned out for the Dubai Exiles, has a slightly different take on things. The Rajans had individual talent and a good back line. Most of the games were controlled by these players. They were talented and good ball-handlers. The fullback and the fly half were the playmakers. In the first two games he reckons that the back division did not get enough good balls from the set-pieces. The situation changed later. If the forwards had been better, the team would have been unmatchable.
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