Sameera Wijesinghe the weightlifting, athletic and rugby star-by Althaf Nawaz

Sameera Sandun Wijesinghe

The task of forwards in rugby are to compete for the ball in scrums and line-outs and are generally bigger and stronger than the backs. Props push in the scrums, while the hooker tries to secure the ball for their team by hooking it back with their feet. The hooker is also the one who is responsible for throwing the ball in at line-outs, where it is mostly competed for by the locks, who are generally the tallest players in the team. The flankers and number eight are expected to be the first players to arrive at a breakdown point and play an important role in securing possession of the ball for their team. Sameera Sandun Wijesinghe was a hefty player who had a remarkable career in rugby occupying a few positions in the pack at school, club and at National level. The 43 yearold Sameera’s father is Norbert a retired Army Officer and Indrani his mother is a housewife. He has two brothers Thimeera a building contractor and Charith is a planter attached to Bogawantalawa Plantations. He was enrolled as a primary student at Kingswood College, Kandy in 1984 and went on to complete his academic career in 1997. Sameera with his build mingled with his friends in school to play various sports during free time. It was Ananda Kasthuriarachchi, his junior rugby coach who spotted him and motivated him to handle the oval shaped ball, after which he joined the college under-13 rugby team, which became the stepping stone to his rugby career. He went on to captain the college under-15, 17 and 19 rugby teams in 1992, 1994 and 1997 respectively. He played in the prop forward and number eight positions during his rugby career. While he was handling the oval shaped ball, he was a member of college Powerlifting and weightlifting squads. He won the Silver medal at Sri Lanka schools Powerlifting Championship in under 81 weight category in 1994. Won the Silver medal at Sri Lanka Junior National Weightlifting Championship in under 81 weight category in the same year. The other unique feature in his sporting career was his participation in the college athletic teams in 1993, 1994 and 1995 in Shot Putt and Discus Throw events. For his participation in sports, he was awarded the College Rugby colours in 1997. He was also made a College prefect in 1996/97.

While he was competing in rugby he was a member of the college under-19 team that played in the All Island 10-a-side tournament for the Milo Trophy in 1996 defeating Trinity in the final. The very next year, he captained his ‘Alma Mater’ in rugby and lost the same tournament in semi finals to Thurstan. Same year they moved to the quarter finals of the President’s Trophy and lost to Isipathana. His first rugby coaches were Ananda Kasthuriarachchi and A.C. Tennakoon in the under 13 and 15 teams. The under-19 rugby team was coached by former Army and Sri Lanka National player G.B.Gunadasa. He was fortunate enough to play with some fine players of that era like Nalaka Weerakkody, Nilfer Ibrahim, Mohamed Buksh and Ravi Jayasuriya .

While he was in school, he along with some of his friends visited Colombo to witness a sevens rugby tournament where the cream of the players from top clubs took part. This motivated and encouraged him to join a club in Colombo and enrolled at CH and FC to play as a hooker to pursue his club rugby career from 1999 to 2006, concentrating with the same club without moving here and there to change clubs. When he donned the CH jersey it was Charndrishan Perera who coached their team and under his guidance they were able to win the inter club under-24 championship in 2000. Same year their senior team won the League Championship under the captaincy of Nazeem Mohamed and coached by Tony Amit. Bimal Perera, Duminda de Silva, Milinda Jayasinghe, Shashika Cooray, Nalin Dissanayeke, Yuganthara. Karunaratne, Jude Pillai and Ajith Upawansa were some of the senior team mates.

He was finally appointed to lead the Gymkhana club in 2004 and was coached by Graham Raux, and the team consisted of four foreign players from Fiji. They were able to end up in fourth place at the end of that season. It was a pleasure to remind that, in his Club Rugby career, he came across few personalities who helped him a lot throughout like Rizly Illyas, Ranjan Kanagasabei and Rajan Anthony were some of them. According to him his tenure at CH was an unforgettable period of time.

He got the National call in 2000 and played against Chinese Taipei in Sri Lanka. The next year he toured Malaysia to play in the Tri Nation Tournament involving Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia. That team was captained by Asoka Jayasena and coached by retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke where they managed to beat Malaysia by 18 – 7. He played against Kazakhstan in

the second round in a World Cup qualifying match in 2002 with Asoka Jayasena leading the team and coached by Tony Amit.

In 2002, he was a member of the National Rugby squad once again for the 14th Asian Games in Busan, Korea. The council of the SLRFU appointed C.P. Abeygunawardena as the National coach and late George Simpkin as the Technical coach.

He was also a member of the squad which took part in the Rugby World Cup qualifying round match against China in 2003.

Next year he played for the Sri Lanka team which played against China. Played in the Rugby World Cup Qualifying matches in 2004/07 against India and Thailand. His other colleagues in the National team were top players like Asoka Jayasena, Pradeep Basnayake, Indrajith Bandaranayake, Sudath Sampath, Asanga Rodrigo, Dunstan de Silva, Savantha de Saram few to be named.

While he was playing rugby, he worked at Harcourts Pharmaceuticals in 2000 and 2001 and played the Mercantile Sevens Rugby Tournament where they were able to become ‘Bowl’ Runner up.

In 2006, he called it a day to his 14-year rugby career and migrated to Italy to work in the Hospitality Industry.

His wife is Bhagya Weerasooriya and two children are ten year old Sethum and 13 year old Methumdi.