Martial arts in rugby training

“The All Blacks have incorporated some aspects of martial arts in to their training programme,” said Ravindu Atukorale in an interview with The Sunday Times. Ravindu better known as Boa is in Sri Lanka for short visit.

Atokorale before leaving for New Zealand in the year 2000, was a top ruggerite. He represented Royal and even played for CH & FC at a relatively young age of 16 in addition to representing Sri Lanka. “S. W. Chang was coaching CH at the time and he asked me to come and train. I was lucky to play alongside the likes of Bimal Perera and Chandrishan de Silva to name just a few. The intensity of playing club rugby helped me a lot. Even at College I had outstanding players like Pavithra Fernando etc as team mates,” said Atukorale.

Unassuming and soft spoken Atukorale returned to prominence earlier this year. He was the trainer of a relatively young CH side that made it to the final of a Singer Sevens tournament. The events and aftermath of the final against Kandy have been well documented and do not need to be repeated.

In addition to doing a day job, Atukorale also works as a Trainer for kick boxers and Carlton Grammer which happens to be one of top rugby clubs in Kiwi land. The concept of a Trainer is somewhat alien to Sri Lankan rugby. Thus we posed the obvious question to Atukorale. “The importance of a good trainer cannot be overestimated. He is the one who focuses on aspects that the coach does have time to devote to. The trainer develops a close relationship with each player and concentrates on mental and physical fitness. He is also the person who carries messages from the bench to the players and ensures that the game plan is executed. Because it’s a one on one situation a good trainer knows when to push a player and when to tell that same player to relax,” he said.

Commenting of New Zealand’s success in recent years, Atukorale said; “Some time ago the All Blacks went through a bad patch. Good players and coaches were leaving for greener pastures. The administrators went back to the drawing board. They pinpointed what was wrong with the system and corrected it. As a result now you see a resurgence in rugby. The most important thing is transparency. Everyone from the players to the administrators is accountable. And each individual knows that he or she has to the job or else there will be another to their place.”

Speaking on his other passion – kick boxing Atukorale said: “What attracted me was the professionalism. Here you have two guys decimating each other in five rounds of three minutes each. At the end of the bout the same two guys are best of friends.
Atukorale in conclusion said that his dream was to see Sri Lankan rugby reach a much higher plane.