Brigadier Japana Jayawardena excellent ruggerite and coach-By Hafiz Marikar

Turning the pages of time, I go back to a outstanding rugby player, Brigadier J.P.A. (Japana) Jayawardena, who played for Trinity College in 1966 under Glen Vanlangenberg as a scrum half and was a very knowledgeable player. This combination of Glen at fly-half and Japana turned out to be a fine combination. His correct name is Jayadeva Parakrama Amarasekera Jayawardena. The name sounds J– P – A with N-A at the end as ‘Jayawardena’. He was a boarder from Junior School and it was in school he was nicknamed Japana

“Japana”as he was affectionately known, won his rugby colours with Alex Lazarus, C.A. Chitty, M. de Silva,Shafie Jainudeen, R.T. Siriwardene,. P..S. Sundaralingam and R.W. Tillakaratne. He won the coveted ‘Rugby Lion’, along with Glen Vanlangenberg and P.S. Sundaralingam in 1966 During the time Japana played, Trinity won the Bradby Shield by beating Royal the first leg was a draw,with the scores reading 3 points each at Longden Place and then in the’second-leg’ at Bogambara, Trinity won 8-3, both matches were refereed by A.Perera. That year Trinity also beat Zahira, St. Peters, Wesley and St.Anthony’s, the St. Josephs game was a draw and Trinity lost to S. Thomas’.The 1966 team was coached by Percy Madugalle and the team was made of players like Glen Vanlangenberg (Capt),Shafie Jainudeen, J.P.A. “Japana” Jayawardena, M. de Silva, R.S.Howie, M. Jiffery, B.K. Jirasainghe, G. Weerasinghe,S. Jayasekara, C.A. Chitty,Alex Lazarus, Ajith Abeyaratne, P.S. Sundaralingam, R.W. Tillakaratne N.T.B.Dissanayake.

After leaving school, Japana played for Havelock Sports Club and then he joined the Sri Lanka Army and did yeoman service for their rugby. He also played for the Defence Services and Sri Lanka. He was in the first ever Army Cup final team, in the history of Army rugby and it was in 1973. It was the first time that the Army had came into a cup final and their opponents were Police. It was after eleven years after coming into big time rugby that they came up to the finals.

The Army side were brimming with confidence after beating CR and FC 16-12 in the semi final. It was a close match in the final and it ended in a 19-all draw and they were joint champions. That year, the Army team was led by that famous footballer S.P de Silva, and the rest of players were;Jayantha Weerasinghe, Basheer Musafer, Reginald de Zilva, N.P. Amaradasa,Japana Jayawardena, Haren Malwatte, S. Ruparatne, M. Rodrigo, M.F. Fernando,T.N. Jayah, G. Edwin, Saliya Udugama, Jayantha Wickramatunge and K.P.Weerasinghe.

The Army’s second Cup Final appearance came three years later, in 1975. That was against another service team Air Force, in that Cup Final, too, Japana Jayawardena was in action. In 1975, the Airmen entered the Cup Final by beating Kandy Sports Club led by Iswan Omar in injury time. This Cup Final was played in September, and the Army team led by Saliya Udugama were able to win the Trophy beating the Airmen by 4 points too 3, in a thrilling game of rugby at Longden Place.

This 1975 Cup winning Army team comprised M.F. Fernando, Alphonso Rodrigo S

,Mohamed,A. Dunstan, Rex Rahim, K.P. Weerasinghe, Saliya Udugama, S. Chandra, Japana Jayawardena, Haren Malwatte, N.P. Amaradasa, Basheer Musafer, S. Jayasinghe,G.B.Gunadasa and S.P. de Silva. In 1979 Army won the Presidents Trophy under the guidance of Frenchman Jan C. Vlaskam and captained by Trinitian Daya Ratnayake, Japana Jayawardena was the Rugby Secretary of the Army team, that year they beat the strong Havelock Sports Club 18 nil to win the ‘plum’. Japana Jayewardena was a fine coach. He also coached his old school Trinity College, and the Army team and groomed several players, Some of them had never ever seen a rugger ball, till they came to Japana when he was handling Army. He was also one time Manager of the Sri Lanka team and was Secretary and later Chairman of the SLRFU in 1994, then the President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees Society, Chairman National Selection Committee, was Chairman of Defence Services and Army rugger and. President of the Central Province Rugby Football Union. Everyone knows there are different types of coaches who guide players in a proper way and put them on the correct path, one of the best examples of this type of coach was Japana Jayawardena. During his coaching he understood what makes his players to play good rugger. He was a coach who had the talent and ability which made the toughest athletes in the sport and was a man who was able to give the players the much needed extra push.