Four rugby super heroes

BY SHARM de Alwis

IT WAS the gathering of a storm. Three rugby legends of the past converged to great a fellow stalwart in P.L. Munasinghe who is here on a brief sojourn. Gama Fernando, Michael Jayasekera and Jeffrey de Jong were the three with PL's wife Rosie, Killy, Sadique and on the overlap.

The conversation, naturally, centered on past deeds and mis-deeds. Jeffrey de Jong had been the villain of the peace on many an occasion and Gama would have aged ten years in his two year stint of coaching Havelocks which comprised a near Country side with Jeyer Rodriguesz, Gavin Stevens, Marco de Silva, Omar Sheriff, Hamzil Samad, Jeffery Yu, Anton Benedict, Jeffrey de Jong, P.L. Munasinghe, Michael Jayasekera, Thajorie Savangbhan and Royden de Silva.

Jeff would always play hookie; late nights at the club even after he had left on instructions, to re-emerge and sip his nectar in corners, ducking for cover. There, but for a wrong first letter in the word 'ducking' had been the story of their lives.

He would be spotted at the Hut with the manager phoning Gama to say, "Sir, your boys are here". Gama would rush to the Hut and chase the miscreants away and, rumour has it, stay on to enrapture beauties with his Adonis face and frame and twinkling toes on the dance floor.

Gama played in an earlier era with Nimal Maralanda, Y.C. Chang, Maurice de Silva, Frankie David, Gogi Tilekaratne, Mark Sunderalingam, Jeff and Dan Rutnam, Jupana Jayawardena and Rajah Dias Sumanasekera.

That third row of Gogi, Mark and Gama stopped in their trackls many an advancing foe in club and international rugger.

Michael Jayasekera was the rugby sensation of his period and, as Gama says, he was his best product though "gift wrapped and delivered by Quentin Israel." He acknowledges that it was PL with his breaks and half-breaks who made Michael a super-star.

PL's rugby exploits were cut short when he was given a knee-break of a double-decker tackle in a practice game even though Gama had warned him, "Don't play; you are already chosen." Gama confesses he cried when PL was injured. It was PL who was first choice for the inner's berth and Michael was the other.

After PL, abdicated his throne, Michael continued his illustrious play in heady combination with flanker Angelo Wickramaratne for us on the safe side of the ropes to chant, "Michael, Angelo, Michael, Angelo."

The flip side of the coin was that with his injury, PL took to studies and is today the Chief Financial Controller of the biggest Organisation in Fiji with its head office in Hong Kong and a branch in London.

Gama and Jeffrey, as flankers, were there to tackle opponents to a stand-still but what was remarkable in PL and Michael was the both, even though they were scintillating play makers and try scorers they would also tackle relentlessly.

It was rewarding, meeting PL's Fijian wife, Rosie. She is the absolute extrovert to PL's introvertism. She is a guy to-out-do most men and even in Fiji if she didn't attend a part she would get beckoning phone calls, "Come on man, you are one of the boys."

We had a pleasant 'wrap' of a conversation and she insisted that I should write extrovert as extrovert, introvert as introvert, exactly as exractly because Killy after his fourth drink was on a lisp. Rosie really is a guy and a halfand Gama and I decided we will take in Fiji next year.