THE ERA OF FRIENDLY RUGBY; WATCHINGTHE BOSUNS IN ACTION
The A5N rugby tourney is over. After a long period of time we had the opportunity of watching international 15-a-side rugby. The next rugby international on our home soil is to be scheduled by the ARFU, the Asian wing of the International Rugby Board, on completion of the competition between top five in Asia. ARFU, the custodian of regional rugby will tell us whom to play, where to play and when to play.
There was a time in our rugby when national – club – representative and university teams from far corners of the world visited us to play some friendly rugby. Just like next door neighbour visits us for a cuppa. Almost every rugby season, we had at least three or four rugby visitors, most of them from European countries. The matches were classified by them as ‘friendly’ and ‘un-official’ but for us, and also for our media, those were ‘internationals’ and rugby ‘Tests’!
From August 1969 to November 1972, as our rugby history reveals, all in all 40 such matches were played in Sri Lanka.
During that period first to arrive was the Bosuns rugby team. They were here on July 30, 1969 on a threeweek tour. Wide publicity was given to every detail of the tour. “The CRFU officials and a number of rugby fans awaited anxiously for the plane from 6 p.m. onwards, but at 9.35 p.m. when the plane touched down, all the fears were allayed. Among those at the airport were K.B. Sangakkara, President of the CRFU, Lt. A.K. Doray, Secretary- CRFU, Com. Darley Ingleton and other committee members.” The visitors were warmly welcomed: “I believe that this, is surprisingly enough, the first time that a team drawn from rugby clubs all over the United Kingdom has visited Ceylon and I very much hope that it will prove to be the first of many such visits” wrote A. M. Mackintosh, British High Commis- sioner at the time. In his welcome message the Minister of Sports V.A. Sugathadasa said “In the United Kingdom, ‘Bosuns’ Rugby team play charity matches to raise funds for the physically handicapped young people. This good example could be followed by Associations in Ceylon as well.” Noel Gratiaen, Q.C. stated that the Bosuns visit is “of mutual benefit” and he is sure “that the Bosuns will enjoy Ceylon, and that Ceylon will enjoy the Bosuns.”
The first match was against the Colombo Clubs Combined team which included Noel Brohier (Capt.), John Burrows, M. A. Majeed, Jeff Ratnam, L. Pereira, Hamzie Hameed, Glen VanLangenberg, J.P.A. Jayawardena, Hadji Omar, Mike de Alwis, Tyronne Holdenbottle, G. Tillekeratne, M.A. Cader, Sunderalingam and Indrajit Cooramaswamy.
The ‘Penalty Kick’ reported: “The Bosuns XV out-ran, overpowered and outplayed the Colombo Clubs to the tune of 56 points (7 goals & 7 tries) to 3. It was rugby magic all the way – straight from the rugby bible.” It was an avalanche of tries, started by the skipper Andy Hurst who made ‘six spurts down the field and all of them ended in tries.’
In the next couple of matches the visitors defeated the CRFU President’s XV by 48 – 5 at Nittawela and white-jerseyed Up-Country XV (led by Ken Murray) 56 – 3 at Radella. “The crowds were the largest seen at Radella since the Queen visited here years ago” reported the ‘Daily Mirror’. If Andy Hurst dominated the first match of the tour with a six-try haul, then it was six foot tall Blackheath winger Mike Bulpitt entertained the Nittawe- la crowd with ‘four sparkling tries.’ The team announced for the Nittawela match included: Tony de Sylva, Tony Masilamani, R. Samarasekera, M. I. Hameed, S.U. Mendis, Kamal Ratnapala, Niyaz Majeed, Maurice Marrinon, G. Dissanayake, R. Bartholomeusz, H. Kannangara, Dan Ratnam, Omar Sheriff, M.T.M. Zarook and Mahes Sabaratnam.
Old timers who have witnessed the Bosuns in action certainly remember how the visiting team members went around the ground during the short break on hat-collection, sometimes with a large towel in hand. It was on par with the practice that the Bosuns have always allied themselves with charity activities. The proceeds of the hat-collection were later donated to physically handicapped children’s homes in Hendala, Negombo and Ratmalana. During the match at Radella, the visitors got the assistance of Tea plucker girls to collect funds on hatcollection! According to a newspaper report “they have already raked in Rupees Three thousand, two hundred and seventy three and thirty one cents from their hat collection during the first three matches they have played.”
‘Insider’ (pen name), a columnist in the “Daily Mirror” wrote: “The Bosuns have all fallen in love with Ceylon. They dig our sun kissed beaches, our tasty dishes and most of all the people. In fact, one of them sounded quite serious when he said that he would like to settle down in Ceylon. A set of unassuming guys, they never carry their reputations, and this has made them one of the most popular foreign teams ever to make a tour of Ceylon.”
Not only with their explosive brand of rugby the Bosuns hit headlines of the sports pages but also with their off the field activities. As the ‘Daily Mirror’ reported: “Full of British humour and wit, they (Bosuns players) are a bunch of nice guys to talk to and that a story that they had smashed up crockery, cutlery, flower pots and then given one of the team members a pudding bath had been misreported. According to one of the team, it was absolutely false that they had damaged stuff worth some seven hundred rupees as reported. There had not even been any pudding for dessert and only a banana had been squashed on player’s head. And that too in good fun! Besides this only a glass and a flower-pot had been broken!”
(To be continued) wijeneil@sltnet.lk