WHEN RUGBY FOOTBALL IN CEYLON REACHED ITS PEAK; ALL-CEYLON 15 – WESTERN AUSTRALIA 3
The year 1938 holds significant importance in Sri Lankan rugby. It was the year that Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then called) fielded two teams, All-ceylon and the Ceylonese, for the first time in the prestigious All-india Rugby Football Tournament. It was the year that Ceylonese rugby or simply, native rugby football ‘reached its peak’. It was also the year that a native rugby club, CR & FC had won the Inter-district Rugby Tournament for the first time in its long history. And importantly, it was also the year that a victorious All-ceylon Team, for the first time in the history, had the services of a few Ceylonese rugby players.
The All-ceylon Team’s maiden participation in the All-india Tournament was in 1926, when it was held in Madras. It was a fully European ‘All-ceylon’ Team led by C. A. Cameron of CH & FC. The team left the Fort Railway Station on October 2, 1926 by the Talaimannar nightmail train, ‘travelling in the new restaurant cars which were recently put on rails’. From Talaimannar, it was a boat trip to the South Indian shores – Dhanushkodi, before arriving in Madras via Rameswaram. Thereafter, the Ceylon Rugby Football Union continued to participate in the tournament whenever the venue was shifted to Madras from Bombay and Calcutta in every third year. The Ceylon Team won the All-india Trophy for the first time during their second year of participation - 1929. The All-ceylon Team was led by J. D. Farquharson, a former South African player who represented Kalutara in the InterDistrict Tourney. He was rated as the best scrum half in the country at the time. The All-ceylon Team once again won the tournament in 1932, and the ‘Ceylon Independent’ reported that on arrival “the team was entertained to lunch at the G.O.H. by the Ceylon Rugby Football Union”. The same newspaper gave a wide coverage to the tour following an identical pattern in the news headlines, such as, ‘How Ceylon beat the Champions’, ‘How Ceylon beat Burma’, ‘How Ceylon beat Calcutta’, to mention a few. In 1935, once again under the captaincy of C. A. Cameron the All-ceylon Team emerged title holders of the All-india Tourney, defeating the all-white Bombay Gymkhana by eight points to five points in the final.
I have found the following story amongst some old writings on the All-india tourney. “In the good old days when there was no air travel, the Ceylon XV went to Madras every third year when the tournament was held there, by train. This involved a 36 hour journey. The Madras Gymkhana Club saw to it that every member of the Ceylon Team and of course the Manager had a bottle of whisky under the pillow of his sleeping berth either to console him in defeat or cheer him in victory.”
The Ceylon Rugby Football Union had the opportunity of entering two teams for the 1938 All-india Rugby Tourney. The first outfit was the ‘All-ceylon’ Team comprised of expatriate ‘Whites’ as in the past. The other team was the ‘Ceylonese’ team, wholly comprised of native talent.
Such a gallant display by the new entrant the Ceylonese Team made the organisers to extend their stay in Madras and to arrange an exhibition charity match between the Ceylonese Team and a combined Team tagged ‘Wilson’s XV’ comprised ‘the pick of all the defeated teams’
TALAIMANNAR ROUTE
On September 24, a national daily reported: “On Wednesday September 28, 1938, a new page will be opened in the history of rugby football in Ceylon, when the Ceylonese team will leave by the Talaimannar route for Madras to participate in the All-india Rugby Tournament. Two days later the All-ceylon Team will entrain for the same destination and with the same object.” On September 29, the same newspaper said “Visit of Ceylon Team to Madras called off – European crisis intervenes. To the great disappointment of the Ceylonese rugger team who had every arrangement made for their departure by Talaimannar train last night for their participation for the first time in the All-india Tournament, was called off at the last moment.” The reason was the imminent declaration of war. Since the majority of players of both teams were involved in the defence services, they were told ‘not to make the trip’ as they might be called for ‘service at any given time’. Accordingly, the organisers in Madras were informed of the withdrawal of Ceylon’s participation. However, within a couple of days, the historic Anti-war Declaration was signed and it looked as if Europe had entered calm waters. The Ceylon Rugby Football Union hurriedly made arrangements for both Ceylon teams to re-enter the tournament which was by then already started. First to arrive in Madras was the Ceylonese Team, followed by the All-ceylon Team on the same train – ferry – train route.
The first ever Ceylonese team to participate in the All-india Tourney was led by Dr. W. D. Ratnavale, who led the CR & FC Team in the same year which became the first club in the Island to clinch the honours of the unofficial Inter-district Championship. The other members of the Ceylonese Team were Percy de Silva, A. P.
Koelmeyer, C. A. Ohlmus, B. Ohlmus, Douglas Pate, E. D. W. Jayawardene, S. David, Ray de Zilva, Fred Kellar, George Kellar, Percy de Zilwa, Percy Perera, A. H. S. Samad, Archibald Perera, Claire Roeloffesz, L. Dodanwela, D. Reith and P. Madugalle with E. F. N. Gratiaen as Team Manager. Interestingly, the Ceylonese Team had 16 players from the champion CR & FC Team and three from the Kandy Rovers Club. To add more interest, the same Ceylonese Team had eight Old Trinitians and two Old Royalists! It was the best native talent available at the time. And they were the first ambassadors of Ceylon rugby.
The Ceylonese Team made history in the first match itself, when they defeated ‘Mofussils’, a team comprised expatriate planters from ‘different planting areas in India’. Incidentally, Skipper Ratnavale clinched the honour of being the first Ceylonese to score a try in the age-old All-india Tourney. The Ceylonese Team lost the second match to another ‘all white’ team – Calcutta by a narrow margin of eight points to five points. It was anybody’s game until the long whistle. “Ceylonese beaten but far from disgraced” was the headline of a match report in Colombo.
HEROIC STRUGGLE
Team Manager E. F. N. Gratiaen cabled the following message from Madras: “The Ceylonese lost by 5 points to 8 to Calcutta in a heroic struggle after 10 minutes of extra time had been granted. The losers were handicapped when their Captain Dr. W. D. Ratnavale was unable to turn out as he was suffering from a slight attack of influenza. The Ceylonese were loudly cheered by all the spectators for the magnificent display they had put up against a much heavier side. The general opinion is that the better side lost.” The Ceylonese team was also to receive an unexpected telegram from G. Adams, a former European President of the Ceylon Rugby Football Union, which read: ‘All Ceylon is proud of you’.
Such a gallant display by the new entrant the Ceylonese Team made the organisers to extend their stay in Madras and to arrange an exhibition charity match between the Ceylonese Team and a combined Team tagged ‘Wilson’s XV’ comprised ‘the pick of all the defeated teams’.
Eventually, as expected the fully European All-ceylon Team became the title holder to lay hands on the All-india Trophy for the fourth time. Led by J. C. Seaton the All-ceylon Team ‘was about the best that ever left the shores of Ceylon’, as it was reported. It had the services of best of ‘Whites’ playing for CH & FC, Dimbula, Dickoya, Uva and Kandy. But it was the Ceylonese Team that earned high praise. Their fitness – “something never witnessed before at Madras” and “sportsmanship under severe provocation” made headlines.
Upon the arrival from Madras they were to play against the visiting Western Australia Rugby Team, led by H. Austin Lee. They were the second team from Australia and at the same time the first State Team from Australia to play in Ceylon.
Importantly, for the first time the Ceylonese were given a match against a visiting team. As expected Dr. W. D. Ratnavale led the Ceylonese
Team against the Western Australians. The match which was refereed by former All-ceylon Skipper C. A. Cameron, ended in favour of the visitors. “A Ceylonese triumph in defeat” was the headline of a match report.
Dr. Willie Ratnavale was also bestowed with the captaincy of the Low-country Team which had seven players from CH & FC and one from Kelani Valley all whites, apart from seven players from the CR & FC. In a keenly contested match the Low-country Team led 9-6 until about five minutes before the end. At this stage the Australians forged ahead with a goal due to a blunder caused by the Low-country full back G. F. de Glanville of Kelani Valley. It made the score 11-9 in favour of the visitors. “The climax was reached” when Low-country team’s place kicker E. G. Waddilove of CH & FC “was faced with a penalty kick a minute or two from time, and a chance of staging a sensational victory.” But unfortunately “the ball just shaved the left upright, on the wrong side,” thus missing the posts.
RUGBY ‘TEST’
A few days later, came the rugby ‘Test’ between Western Australian State Team and the All-ceylon XV at the Racecourse. A Colombo daily reported: “Shortly before the time scheduled for the start, H. E. the Governor Sir Andrew Caldecott and Lady Caldecott arrived and passing through the two teams drawn up outside the CH and FC pavilion proceeded to their seats where they were joined by Sir Sidney and Lady Abrahams. The teams followed hard on their heels and after the Australians had gone through their ‘War-cry’, play was set in progress.”
The All-ceylon Team card read: E. M. Ross, Percy de Silva, Percy de Zilwa, F. D. Church and E. D. Waddilove, P. M. Renison and F. A. C. Roellefsz, H. A. Whittal, A. E. D. Windus, R. M. Mcintyre, R. E. Rutland, J. C. Seaton (Captain), I. M. Ward, B. A. Ohlson and A. Berry.
Imagine, by now the Ceylonese players of the calibre of Percy de Silva, Percy de Zilwa and Claire Roeloffesz are donning the AllCeylon jersey along with Seaton, Ward and the other European players. Referring to this, the official rugby history of the Union mentioned, “Ceylonese rugby had come of age. They could no longer be neglected.” Amongst those few instances where the Ceylonese players were chosen by the All-european selection panel to represent the All-ceylon Team were: V. C.
Schokman and A. R. Lourensz (both of the CR & FC) against New Zealand Maoris in 1927, Phillip Buultjens (CR & FC) was a reserve (with 15 European players) against the British ‘Lions’ in 1930 and E. F. N. Gratiaen (CR & FC) against Madras Gymkhana in 1932.
As per a match report: “Rugby football in Ceylon reached its peak yesterday (October 28, 1938) on the Racecourse when All-ceylon convincingly beat the Western Australian Team by 15 points (three clear-cut goals) to three (an unconverted try). All-ceylon clearly called the tune and, after Berry had gone over for a second converted try, came some really fierce play in which the tourists strove their hardest to reduce the lead. But this was not to be, and it was a great try by P. de Zilwa in the gathered gloom that put writ to the first tour in Ceylon of an Australian State Team.” During the last stages of the match, according to the same news report, “The play that immediately followed was such as has seldom been seen on a rugger field in Ceylon. Dusk had been creeping over the ground, and the street-lights were showing prominently at their spaced intervals. Mr. C. A. Cameron refereed and one wondered how he was able to note the infringements that he ordered towards the end.”
Incidentally, Percy de Zilwa became the first Ceylonese player to score a try for the “All-ceylon” Team against a visiting team.
LANDMARK YEAR
As stated before the year 1938 became a landmark year particularly for the Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club (CR & FC) and generally for the ‘Ceylonese’ rugby. Both the CR &FC and the Ceylonese Team played under the captaincy of Dr. Willie Ratnavale. Now read the following captivating passage extracted from a newspaper article written by journalist Maxwell Jacotine, in 1963, titled “It has become an annual ritual for rugby giants - a date among the firs”.
To quote: “For over two decades on a Sunday in August, a number of men from all parts of Ceylon roll up silently at a Colombo 7 address and get together among the tall firs which surround a little club house. They will be doing it again shortly (1963) - this time to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the year when they brought glory to their club, their race and themselves. For the men who gather every year in August are the men who formed the fabulous CR and FC Team in 1938.
That was not only the side which were unofficial club champions that year, which swept aside opposition in waves of brilliance but most important, it was the first Ceylonese side ever to achieve the feat.
They were the toast of every rugger loving citizen in Lanka those days. For they were not just CR, they were for the most part of the Ceylonese Team. Those were the men, rugger was their life.
When they meet again this month as the cheers for the new club champions are still echoing, they will drink a toast to the glory that was theirs, to the one who has passed on, to those who have made their homes elsewhere and of course to their one abiding passion – RUGGER.”
The Ceylonese Team made history in the first match itself, when they defeated ‘Mofussils’, a team comprised expatriate planters from ‘different planting areas in India’. Incidentally, Skipper Ratnavale clinched the honour of being the first Ceylonese to score a try in the age-old All-india Tourney