Scrum half Milinda brought honour and fame to his school and country-by Althaf Nawaz
Milinda Jayasinghe
Source:Dailynews
Nalanda College, Colombo is one of the pioneer Buddhist schools in the country which has played a pivotal role in producing some top academics who have excelled in various fields and several sportsmen who have played a key role in bringing honour and fame to their Alma Mater by playing for clubs and country with distinction. Milinda Jayasinghe was one of the few ruggerites produced by them who handled the oval shaped ball in an illustrious career to become the cynosure of all eyes with his extraordinary skills in rugby.
Milinda Jayasinghe who was well known as ‘Milie’ in sports circles was born in 1978 in Kiribathgoda in the Gampaha District. His father was late Athula Jayasinghe who worked for Kelani Cables while mother Ramani was a housewife.
He has four siblings namely Nalaka, Shanika, Chethana and Subodhaka. He enrolled at Nalanda College in 1984 as a primary school student and excelled in studies until end of his career in 1998. Milinda was a midget but was a vigorous player who was drafted in as the link man between the pack and the three quarter line, occupying the scrum half position. He engaged in sports from his childhood and chose to play rugby for the under-13 team at school, when he was just 11 years old. Noticing his nippy ball handling and scintillating performance from the base, the coaching staff appointed him to lead the under-13 rugby team in 1991.
When he was only 14 years old, he was selected to don the college first XV jersey in 1994. He later led Nalanda under 19 rugby team to overcome their traditional rivals Ananda to regain the P de S Kularatne Trophy after 13 years, by putting over a crucial drop kick in 1996, which was an unforgettable incident in his tenure as a player for his school. While he was playing rugby, he also engaged in basketball and football at college when time permitted him.
Soon after completing the exams, he got the opportunity to play for CR and FC under-24 team in 1996 to compete in the inter club 10-a-side tournament and won the championship under the captaincy of Champika Nishantha coached by Asanga Seneviratne, where he was adjudged best player of the tournament.
The very next year in 1997, he played for CR senior team which clinched the ‘Carlsberg’ knockout championship coached by C.P. Abeygunawardena and Ajith Abeyratne. They beat Havelocks in the final and once again he was picked as the most outstanding player of the tournament. The 1998 season was an astonishing one, which made a drastic change in his rugby career. At the inception Asanga Seneviratne offered him a job at Asia Capital and invited him to play in the Mercantile Sevens with players likeViraj Prasanna, Azard Junkeer, Nalaka Weerakkody, Chelaka Hapugoda and Asanga Rodrigo. While playing there, he opted to cross over to CH and FC with the support of Asanga Seneviratne and Asanga Rodrigo.
In 1998, he played for CH and went on to win the sevens tournament beating Kandy at the finals led by Nazeem Mohamed and coached by Chandrishan Perera. While scrumming down for them, he had the National call to play under Priyantha Ekanayake’s captaincy with Ana Saranapala as the coach. In 2000, CH won the Inter Club League Championship by overcoming CR by 25-16 in the decider played at Maitland Crescent under the captaincy of Nazeem Mohamad ably coached by Tony Amit.
In 2000, he joined HNB and played Mercantile Sevens under Jude Dimthri’s captaincy and defeated Sampath Bank in the finals to win the championship. That year HNB recruited only Sanjeewa Jayasinghe and him to win the championship. One year later in 2001, he got an invitation from Mat Lee who was the coach at CH at that time to play for his club (Petone) in Wellington, New Zealand. He played few seasons for them without clashing with the local club season since 2002, where his team won the League Championship in 2004. He continued playing for CH and captained them in 2003 defeating Kandy on their home ground. As both teams had equal points the championship was awarded to Kandy on bonus points, resulting in CH ending up as runner-up.
His National career started in 2001 with the Hong Kong Sevens. He then continued playing both formats of the game the sevens and XV-a-side against countries like Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, China, Korea and India.He played at Asian Games sevens and XV’s under Harris Omar’s captaincy in Korea in 2002 coached by Laga (Tavitha Thulagesi) and C.P. Abeygunawardena. His final appearance with the National Rugby team was in 2010 at the Commonwealth Games in India captained by Radhika Hettiarachchi and coached by late George Simpkin.
He played in the All India rugby league for two years for Bangalore and Kolkata as a foreign player in 2007/2008 seasons. He then joined Sri Lanka Air Force Rugby team under a special invitation extended by then Commander Roshan Gunatillake. He went on to captain Air Force Rugby team in 2011 and took the team to New Zealand to play against the Royal New Zealand Air Force team. They beat them and was awarded the player of the match for the first game.
The same year, their sevens team took part in the ‘Jonah Jones’ sevens tournament in Malaysia under his captaincy coached by Imthi Marikkar. In 2011/12, he worked as a strength and conditioning coach with Asanga Rodrigo in Mercantile Sevens Rugby for the Dialog team.
He completed the Level 1 and 2 coaching in New Zealand and coached his school Nalanda from 2008 to 2012. From 2002 till 2018, under Imthi Marikkar‘s influence, he attended a number of training camps in New Zealand and specialized in sevens rugby training under the coaching of Sir Gordon Tietjens to enhance his knowledge. Also attended Chief Super Rugby training camp conducted by Dave Renne, the Hurricanes training camp handled by Chris Boyd and Blue’s training camp under the guidance of Sir Graham Henry.
He migrated to New Zealand in 2013 with his family and was appointed as the strength and conditioning coach for ‘Invercargill Blues’ premier team followed by Star Premier team in 2015.
While being there Southland Rugby Football union approached him and assigned him to handle the STAGS – Southland Development Rugby team where he got an opportunity to work with the current All Blacks assistant coach Brad Mooar and the rest of the coaching staff, which was an honour for him.
He was appointed as the strength and conditioning coach for the provincial women’s and men’s sevens teams, men’s sevens assistant coach, and also he was the first ever Sri Lankan to coach a provincial sevens team and took the men’s team up to the national sevens competition.
Currently he is working at New Zealand Aluminum Smelter and his wife Manji works at the Southern Institute of Technology and his daughter Sanya is studying at the James Hargest Senior College in Invercargill.
He would like to thank . Ruwan Padmawansa, Asanga Seneviratne, Tony Amit, Ana Saranapala, retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke, Rizly Illiyaz(Dida), Roshan Gunatillake and Imthi Marikkar for extending their support and guidance throughout his rugby career.
