Viper Gunaratne was a ferocious tackler

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN, Kandy Sports Correspondent

Viper Gunaratne Snr. is one of the deadliest tacklers the rugby field this country has seen and his legitimate tackles made many a ruggerite end up a cropper. In one of his deadly tackles sent five players to the hospital and his opponents were reduced to just ten players on the field. He moves like a snake on the field and makes his deadly strike and that was this great ruggerite now living in retirement in the hill capital.

At present he is still working as a free lance Insurance Assessor and no one knows his real name. He is known as Viper which is the name given to the deadly and highly venomous snake 'polonga'. If you mention his real name, he will never be identified in Kandy. His real name is Edwin Gunaratne and for the last forty years no one had ever used this name except signing official documents.

Since he is known by this name, we will also call him Viper who started playing rugby at Vidyartha College from 1962 to 1965 as a flanker. His first rugby coach was former Kandy Sports Club. Sri Lanka, Upcountry, Dimbulla, and Trinity College rugby lion and rugby captain Jayantha Jayawardena. It was Jayantha Jayawardena who spotted his talents and made him take to rugby.

He instilled aggressiveness into him at a time rugby was not a very popular sport in schools. At that time only a few schools played rugby.

Vidyartha College had just started playing them and Trinity College was a major influence on them as they helped them a lot. St. Anthony's College was the other school from Kandy which played the game. The other schools in Sri Lanka which played rugby at that time was Royal College, St. Peter's College, Zahira College, S. Thomas' College and St. Joseph's College. Thus we had very few rugby fixtures and for most of us it was very few school games and if lucky played for a club. After leaving school be turned out for Kandy Sports Club in just one match before joining the Royal Ceylon Air Force with Air Commodore Paddy Mendis who later became the Commander of the Air Force making the recruitment.

After somewhat a quiet school and a very brief club rugby career in Kandy, his rugby skills bloomed out at Air Force where his fighting skills and killer instinct were instilled into him as a fearless flanker.

He played for Air Force from 1966 to 1973 in the company of top ruggerites like Edile Buell, Group Captain Tikiri Marambe, late Charles Wijewardena (before joining Police, Lofty Perera, Omar Sheriff, Shanthi Mendis, Mohan Balasuriya, Nalin Silva all of whom played for the country with distinction.

When the insurgents struck the country in 1971, he turned out for CR & FC for two years as the airmen did not participate in the rugby tournaments.

He was a regular player as a flanker for the national rugby team against foreign teams and also played for the Defence Services in the All India Rugby Tournaments and in the annual Capper Cup and the now defunct triangular rugby tournament which featured the Upcountry. Colombo Clubs and the Defence Services.

He recalled that Defences Services were playing upcountry at Badella in the late sixties. They were up against some burly expatriate planters and the locals were also equally big and strong. On that day his hard play was too strong and he tackled so hard that five players from the Upcountry side were injured and had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment. This reduced the opponents to just 10 men on the field in their home territory as replacements were not permitted those days. They won the match comfortably. But they were all legitimate tackles.

Austin Daniel who was then a leading writer on rugby who reported this match nicknamed him 'Viper' and the name came to stay and his real name 'Edwin' was cast into obscurity. He said while the match was in progress, the large number of spectators who turned up for the game kept guessing with the way he was tackling who will be the next victim.

Another incident be recalled was an incident involving late Daya Jayasundera (who passed away recently) when Air Force played Police at Police Park.

They were two very strong sides and the game was barely two minutes old. In the line out, Daya Jayasundera did something naughty to destabilise him and he retaliated. Referee Darley Ingleton saw this and he called Daya Jayasundera and ordered him off the field. A few moments the referee paused for a while and said "You too go out".

Thus both players were sent off the field and they were watching the match from the touch lines often exchanging a smile - a smile which sent the message how stupid we were, at the spur of the moment.

In another match played in the All India Rugby Tournament at Calcutta in the late '60s All Ceylon played Defence Services in the finals. Those were the days when our national rugby team played in the All India Rugby Tournament which was dominated by the European Planters from both countries.

The Defence Services scored first twice and the All Ceylon team equalized through two tries. The Defence Services were on their way for their third try when Ceylon full back John Burrows tapped the ball and the referee awarded a 22 yard 'drop out'.

Ceylon scored the winning try off a forward pass and clinch the championship title. It was obvious to everyone present that it was not a try as it was a blatant forward pass.

When questioned after the match the referee who was also from Ceylon said: "How can I allow a team from the same country beat the national side." The Air Force boss of the time was so angry that he ordered not to allow this referee to take the same flight with the Air Force team.

Viper Gunaratne played for All Ceylon in many representative games and some of them were against England, Blackheath SC, Besuns, Paris University, just to name a few.

He was a fearless flanker and later coached Ananda College for three years and guided them to their first trophy win against his old school Vidyartha College in the annual William Gopallawa Shield encounter in all three years.

He is a member of the Central Province Rugby Football Union and was the Chairman Development for many years. He now lives in retirement in Kandy helping rugby and giving back to the game what he learnt and what made him a none and above got him the nickname 'Viper', perhaps the only time in history in which the world 'Viper' was well received and most welcome as otherwise this an encounter with this reptile is always dangerous.