Havelocks in search of past glory

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Havelocks Sports Club with 14 players from last year's team in their ranks will go all out to recapture their past glory in the 2008 rugby season.

The Park Club boasts of a powerful and experienced set of forwards and the back division is laden with talented youngsters with the only absentee being last year's Sri Lanka centre Niroshan Karunanayake who has crossed over to CR and FC. They have been strengthened by the inclusion of three talented players who represented their schools last year - Sri Lanka youth player Andrew Jegan (Wesley), Nuwan Hettiarachchi (Dharmaraja) and Peterite flanker Sharo Fernando.

The lads from Havelock Park finished fourth in last year's Caltex 'A' Division League by beating Army in both matches (20-10) and (25-13), Police (21-10) and Old Zahirians (48-0) and went down fighting to the mighty Kandy SC (10-24) and the formidable CR and FC (24-31) in the return matches while in the Clifford Cup knock-out Tournament they scored a smashing 27-15 win over Army in the quarter-finals and gave another sterling display against Kandy SC in the semi-finals before losing by 13-28.

The Park Club's best performance in recent years was in 2003 when Tongans Joseph Waka and Alex Taka with their individual brilliance propelled them to a 21-19 win over arch rivals CR and FC in the finals of the Premier Champions Trophy.

But the period 1974 to 1981 can be considered as the Golden era of Havelocks rugby during which they won club rugby's richest prize - the Clifford Cup on five occasions and the Rugby Triple twice in 1978 under the captaincy of Anton Benedict and 1981 led by Angelo Wickremaratne and also bagged the Rugby Double in 1976 - the 'A' Division League and Clifford Cup under the leadership of Thajone Savanghan.

Leading the pink and chocolate jerseyed lads this year is former Trinitian Kavinda Jayasena. He turned out for his school in 1998 and 1999 and played for the park club from 2000 to 2002 in which year he donned the Sri Lanka Jersey at the Bangkok Rugby Asiad. He switched allegiance to Kandy SC in 2003 before rejoining Havelocks in 2006.

He will be one of the lock forwards with burly Chathuranga Amarasinghe or Sri Lanka youth player Andrew Jegan filling the other berth.

The battle hardened Shafi Hassan who has represented Havelocks for more than a decade will once again bind down in the front row with either Kasun Yassaisuru or Danushka Sandaruwan. Last year's skipper Rajiv Perera, a tireless loose player will be the regular hooker once again with Indika Abeyaratne and Harsha Pradeep as the stand byes.

The park club will have a formidable third row. Former national player Ravi Jayasuriya who is a terrific player in the loose and a fierce tackler will occupy one flanker berth.

He had a marvellous season last year. Another herd tackler ex-policeman T.D. Seneviratne faces a strong challenge from S.B. Dissanayake and ex-Peterite Sharo Fernando for the other position. Former Sri Lanka player Rajiv Ganapathy who stood out in both defence and attack last year will once again occupy the No. 8 berth.

Sri Lanka player Dilan de Zoysa will operate from the base of the scrum with Roshan Rajapakse making a determined bid to oust him. Young Samantha Lakshan who was an asset to the side with his accurate place kicking will occupy the pivotal fly half position. Prasad Perera is the other player who could fit into this berth.

The seasoned duo of Ruwan Suranga and Nuwan Samith who are hard runners and solid tacklers will once again occupy the centre berths. Dilip Methruwan is the other player who is being tried out as a centre.

Sri Lanka Sevens player Wasim Thajudeen will be manning one wing with three hard runners Ruchira Ratnage, Zakir Badurdeen and Chanaka Fonseka fighting it out for the other position. Sri Lanka youth player Nuwan Hettiarachchi is expected to be the regular full back but faces a strong challenge from Anushka Hasaranga.

Former Havelocks skipper Nishantha Chanaka has been entrusted with the task of coaching Havelocks this year Chanaka who is also the Assistant Coach of the Sri Lanka Sevens team is taking great pains to mould them into a force to be reckoned with assisted by S.W. Chang as the Technical Advisor.