Former rugby star Maurice dies in Australia-by Hafiz Marikar

Maurice de Silva

Maurice de Silva, the former top class rugby player, coach and administrator died in Brisbane early morning on Thursday, at the age of 83.He was surrounded by his family and showered with their love as he breathed his last He suffered a massive stroke on Wednesday and died in hospital

Maurice as he was popularly known was widely regarded as one of the greatest centres in the history of Sri Lanka rugby. He learnt his rugby at St. Peter’s College and later played for Havelock SC, Kandy Lake Club and Sri Lanka. He had natural talent. His coaches were amazed at his ability.

He was one of the top players at Havelock SC, and in the mid 1960’s he was invited by E.W. Balasuriya to coach the Kandy Lake Club and their rugby rose to great heights Maurice coached Kandy Lake Club which had players like Farook Dole, Niyaz Majeed, Alex Lazarus, D. Etipola, Tony deSylva, George Thambiraja, Maurice Windus, Carl Fernando, Nihal Jayatilleke,Hector Galuge, Jadi Dissanayake, Izwan Omar, Didacus De Almedia, and Shafi Jainudeen. With his expert coaching within three years Kandy Lake Club gained promotion to ‘A’ division a great achievement indeed.

Some of his team mates at Havelock SC were Hubert Aloysius, Nimal Marlande, Dickie Jayatilleke, Y.C. Chang, Ken de Joodt, Mike de Alwis, Condrad Ephramus, Maurice Anghie, Trevor Anghie, L. Sumanasekera and Gamini Fernando.