Rugby star Shamil Mohamed did his school and country proud-by Althaf Nawaz

Shamil Mohamed

Source:Dailynews

Royal College, Colombo has produced several champion sides in their rugby history. The 2002, team was an invincible side, which not only remained unbeaten but also established several new records, while producing many players who went onto reach great heights by handling the oval shaped ball. Shamil Mohamed is no stranger in the field of rugby who put up an enthralling performance as a player in that team, and went onto represent the country. He was blessed with natural talents His immediate family members (father and brother) influenced him and encouraged him to become an excellent ruggerite

Shmail was born in 1983 and his father was late Major Shahul Hameed Mohamed, who was a Commissioned officer in the regular force of the Sri Lanka Army as a field engineer. He was a Royalist who was awarded school colours for Rugby and Boxing also representing College in second eleven cricket. He was a member of the Royal rugby team which played in the ‘Bradby Shield’ matches in 1966/67 seasons.

He represented the Defence Services in rugby and later captained Army Rugby team piloting them to win the Clifford Cup, and went on to receive the Army colours in Rugby. Milhana was his mother a housewife. He has two siblings with Shafra being his sister and Shabeer is his younger brother who took part in several sporting disciplines including rugby at Royal. This earned him college colours for Rugby in 2009, and they were unbeaten throughout the season winning the Bradby Shield by 22-12 and 31 -15 and Singer Trophy League Championship under the leadership of Naren Dhason He was awarded the Royal ‘Crown’ for his excellence in rugby. and represented the Sri Lanka Under-19 team in 2009. He was a member of the CR and FC Rugby Team from 2010 to 2012 and made his debut for Sri Lanka in 2011 against Japan in the 2011 HSBC Asian Five Nations Rugby Tournament.

Shamil was registered as a primary student at Royal in 1989 and went on till 2002 to complete his school career. His father’s influence and motivation played a pivotal role in him choosing rugby at school.

He started playing rugby from under-13 level and represented the college team in all age groups. With his built and body structure, he opted to occupy the Prop Forwards position which continued until his retirement from the game. His junior coaches were Y.K. de Silva and Niroshan Jayasinghe, who taught him the basics of the game.

When he reached the first XV team they were under the watchful eyes of Tavita Thulagaesi (Laga) and Nizam Jamaldeen. The year 2002 was a remarkable year where they remained unbeaten and won all the traditional Trophy Games against (Trinity, S.Thomas, Isipathana) and went on to win the Bradby Shield with a record margin of 83-0 (39-0, and 44-0) which remains as an unblemished record. They beat the Thomians 39-3 and St. Peter’s 24-12.

They also clinched the ‘Milo Schools President’s Trophy by beating Wesley 25-16 in the final in 2002. While he was competing at first XV level (2000-2002) he was a third year coloursman. He was awarded the highest sporting honour by his ‘Alma Mater’ the Royal Crown for rugby. He was adjudged the Best player in the Milo schools All-Island Rugby Tournament held in 2002 after Royal beat Wesley in the finals. In 2001 was chosen to represent the Junior Sri Lanka National Rugby team, which was the only Sri Lanka Team to qualify for the Junior Rugby World Cup in Chile. While playing for school, he toured Malaysia in 1989 and Australia in 2002.

According to him, all the Bradby Shield matches were special moments in life, however, the memorable moment for him was in Bogambara, just before kick off for the second leg of the 2002 Bradby Shield.

The whole team was caught up in emotion on the occasion, that being the last game as a team. As a result coach Tavita Tulagaesi decided to celebrate the moment by performing a traditional Haka for them, in the dressing room. The end result was a Bradby Shield record that still stands until today (almost 20 years).

After his school career he joined CR and FC team as most of his colleagues registered with them in 2002 and went on to play until 2009. His best memories of CR was winning the Clifford Cup by beating Havelocks 37-5 in 2006 and the 2005 home win at Longden Place, against the defending champs Kandy, where he scored the winning try. He went on to captain CR in 2007 season to win the SLRFU Presidents Trophy by overcoming CH and FC by 22-11 in the final

While he was playing there, he got the National call in 2004 and went on to play for Sri Lanka until 2008.

He made his debut against India at the Bombay Gymkhana rugby club in 2004 and continued to play in several tournaments including the Rugby Asiads and Tri Nation Tournaments.

He has fond memories of the national team,when they were playing the 2007 Rugby World Cup Asia qualifiers. It was an amazing team, coached by the late George Simpkin and captained by the late Sajith Mallikarachchi, which had some top players.

They had a great series of wins against Thailand, Singapore, Kazakhstan and China until they finally succumbed to a very good Hong Kong side.

He finally retired from rugby to pursue his career in corporate banking. He has over 15 years experience in the Banking and finance industry, specializing in the area of electronic Supply Chain Finance (SCF) solutions. Currently positioned as a Global Product Manager for Standard Chartered Bank, based in Singapore. He has obtained Bachelor of Science Honours for Economics and Management from the University of London. His wife is Namali Tillakaratne and has two children Shah (two years) and Imani (eight months).