1980 Royal Captain Sujanthakumar Chief Guest

Bradby Shield Second Leg on Saturday

Former Royal skipper and Sri Lanka scrum half Subramanium Sujanthakumar will be the chief guest at the second leg of the 73rd Bradby Shield Encounter at the Royal Sports Complex on Saturday (June 3).

Sujanthakumar know as “SUKU” among the rugby fraternity played for Royal from 1977 to 1980 captaining the school in his final year. He turned out for the Sri Lanka Combined Schools against Loughborough Schools, England in 1978 and also played for Colombo North Schools led by the late Raba Gunasekera in 1979 which beat the Colombo South Schools 35-12 in the Gratiaen Cup final.

Under his leadership in 1980, Royal with only three coloursman had an excellent season winning nine out of 10 matches. The1980 Royal side was coached by Malik Samarawickrama, the present Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade and Dr. Fred Perera who Captained the Royal side in 1971.

Royal beat Ananda (10- 0), Dharmaraja (41-0), Wesley (54-0), Vidyaratha (8-0), St. Peter’s (100), St. Joseph’s (11-6), S.thomas’ (10-7) and Trinity (7-3) and (16-6) and suffered a defeat at the hands of Isipathana (7-14).

In the first leg of the Bradby Shield, Royal helped by a try by Sriyan Cooray and a spectacular 43 yard penalty from the corner by P.g.d.nimalasiri won 7-3 and in the return match at Nittawala the Royalists led 6-3 at half time through two penalties by P.g.d.nimalasiri. In the second half Royal crossed the Trinity goal line twice, flanker Seevalie Jayasinghe and centre Sumith Fonseka with Nimalasiri’s spectacular conversion of Fonseka’s try by the corner flag giving Royal a 16-6 win and they retained the Bradby Shield for the third successive year.the champion Royal Team comprised: Leon Fonseka, Hemal Jayawardane, P.g.nimalasiri, Kapila Pereis, S. Sridharan, Shanaka Gunerathna, Seevalie Jayasinghe, Irshard Rahiman, Subramanium Sujanthakumar, (Captain), Amaranath Kandiah, Sriyan Cooray, Sumith Fonseka, Hiran Muttiah, Sujeawa Cooray and Johan Muller.

Sujantha Kumar went onto play for CH and FC from 1980 to 1985 captaining the side in 1983 in which year the Maitland Cresent Club emerged unbeaten as the Clifford Cup League Champions.

He donned the Sri Lanka Jersey at the Hong Kong Sevens in 1982 and at the 1984 Rugby Asiad in Fukuoka City, Japan.

Subsequently his other teammates P.g.d.nimalasiri,kapila Peris,sujeewa Cooray, Sriyan Cooray and Hiran Muttiah represented CR & FC and Seevalie Jayasinghe, Amaranath Kandiah, Johan Muller represented CH & FC.