Huge task for Sean

It has fallen to the lot of ex Trinity flanker Sean Wijeysinghe to take over the leadership of the hugely successful Kandy Sports Club team for the ensuing year. Sean sure has big boots to fill as his predecessor Jeeva Galgamuwa ensured that every bit o silver ware on offer was brought back to the Trophy cabinet.

Sean, who played for Trinity under the Captaincy of David Luchow remembers the Bradby games of 2000 as being intensely exciting and memorable. Trinity won the first leg in Colombo but lost the second in Kandy. However, the lions prevailed overall. A bit of an all-rounder, Sean captained the College Basketball team, specialized in field events (in athletics) and played Under 15 cricket. The Vice Captain of the rugby team in 2001, he was also the Deputy Head Prefect of Trinity.

He missed out on representing the Sri Lanka Under 19 team as he had gone abroad to join his parents. Sean gives thanks to God and his parents, in that order, for making him the man he is. In his seventh year at the champion club, Sean likes the role of flanker as it helps him to keep working on the field. "The work-rate is high" he says. He singles out qualities such as discipline, speed, agility, power and quick thinking as being the hall-marks of a good flanker. At club level, he has played with Dilip Chelvam (a school-mate), Imran Bistamin and Dushantha Lewke in the third row, while for the Sri Lanka games it has been Dilanka Wijesekera and Lewke.

The skipper looks forward with the great enthusiasm to the new season. He speaks in glowing terms of the work put in by D.U.M. Jayatileka (a well-known sports personality) the fitness trainer. Says Sean, "the lads have put on weight and the strength levels have come up". Jayatileka, together with Nilufer Ibrahim, are handling the early season practices until the arrival in April of last year's coach Johann Taylor.

Kandy SC has a thirty member pool, and the number selected for each match is twenty two. The captain hopes to lead out "a whole, new Kandy team". The players are very professional and are looking after themselves. "Cutting practices' is almost unheard of -competition is very keen and Kandy SC has been known to have several Sri Lanka players on their bench. In fact, nineteen to twenty players even practice in the morning, in addition to the work outs in the evening.

Sean emphasizes that the greatest competition comes not from any other club but from within. Kandy SC respects every team they meet, bit Old Zahirians, the Navy or the Air Force- They take each game as a new, different one. A couple of players may have left and a couple may have come back. But the Skipper is amazed at the talent at his disposal.

Sean, the flanker, has turned out for the Sri Lanka side from 2002 and visited Korea, Hong Kong and the Arabian Gulf. He has also played against China and the countries mentioned above, at home. Missing from the portfolio, however, is Sevens Rugby. He has never been considered for International Sevens.

In conclusion, Sean is thankful to the Patron of Kandy SC Malik Samarawickrema for his gigantic contribution to the club and to rugby in general.