Sanjeeva - pride of Kandy SC and Sri Lanka

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

A player who has reached great heights in the field of rugby is 29-year-old Sanjeeva Jayasinghe who was voted as the Most Popular Ruggerite for 2007 by readers of the Sunday Observer and Daily News and received the glittering Caltex-Observer Trophy at the Rugby Awards Ceremony held at Galle Face Hotel on Wednesday.

Winger Sanjeeva stormed into the Club Rugby scene in 1998 by playing for Havelocks Sports Club. He thrilled rugby fans with his power-packed runs down the flanks and was rewarded for his superb display by being picked to play for Sri Lanka at the Singapore Rugby Asiad in the same year.

He continued to dazzle for Havelocks and Sri Lanka and helped the Park Club to clinch the Club Rugby Sevens Title in 2000 and 2001 - the year in which he captained Havelocks.

The finest moment of his career came in 2001 at the Dubai International Rugby Sevens in which he scored seven tries in five games - perhaps the best performance by a Lankan ruggerite in an International Rugby Sevens Tournament.

He scored a glorious try in the curtain raiser of the tournament against the strong Scotland team and in the next match against the mighty All Blacks he scored a scintillating try after a breathtaking 60-metre run and received a standing ovation from a capacity crowd of 12,000 at the Dubai Exiles Rugby grounds.

He followed it up with two superb tries in their final Group 'A' match against Portugal.

In the Bowl quarter-final against Kenya he scored two splendid tries to steer them to a 22-14 win and in the semi-finals against the formidable Wales he scored another brilliant try which saw the Lankans go down fighting by 12 points to 24.

He joined Kandy Sports Club in 2002 and has played a key role in the success of Kandy SC which has reigned supreme in club rugby. In 2005 he captained the club and under his leadership the hill capital club clinched the Rugby Triple - Caltex 'A' Division League, Clifford Cup and Rugby Sevens Title.

He has been an automatic choice for the national team and in 2005 he came up with a stupendous performance in a World Cup qualifying match against Thailand in which he scored five tries and in the same year he was appointed as the Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens Captain.

This year he was picked to lead Sri Lanka in the Asian Nations Series matches against Arabian Gulf and Kazakhstan and also played a vital role in helping Sri Lanka to emerge runners up of the Singer Rugby Asiad with another fine display.