{"id":50508,"date":"2020-09-28T16:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T16:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=50508"},"modified":"2020-09-28T16:01:34","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T16:01:34","slug":"rugby-star-saman-brought-honour-and-fame-to-sri-lanka-by-althaf-nawaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/rugby-star-saman-brought-honour-and-fame-to-sri-lanka-by-althaf-nawaz\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby star Saman brought honour and fame to Sri Lanka-by Althaf Nawaz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby star Saman brought honour and fame to Sri Lanka-by Althaf Nawaz<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"Saman<\/p>\n

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Saman Jayasinghe captained Sri Lanka at both Hong Kong Sevens and Singapore Rugby Asiad in the same year (1982)<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Source:<\/span><\/strong>Dailynws<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Royal College, Colombo has produced many academics and top class sportsmen in the 1980\u2019s. Thejana Saman Jayasinghe is one of them who excelled at school, Club and at International level bringing fame and honour to the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Popularly known as \u2018Saman\u2019 in sporting circles is in his sixties and is a member of a family of seven children with five boys and a girl. From his small days he had a close bond with sports and after joining Royal College he got pumped up watching the seniors engage in sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he was 14 years old he opted to play cricket which apparently became his stepping stone in sports, also turned out to be his first love. He then continued playing cricket in the under-14 and 16 teams at college. During this time, he was extended an invitation by Ajith Pasqual, a senior student and his house captain at the time, to participate in an inter-house rugby tournament. After playing in these matches monitoring his skills, Ajith Pasqual encouraged him to join under-17 rugby practices in 1972, where he first stepped into the field of rugby.<\/span><\/p>\n

He then became a regular member in the rugby team as he went on to play in that invincible under-17 side in 1973. While playing there he was called to join the college first XV team in his pet position of number eight from 1974 and went on to play in 1975 and 1976 seasons, under the captaincies of Brumoon Akbar, Ifthikar Hassen, and Manik Weerakumar respectively. In 1976, he had his best season as a player where his invincible team broke all previous records held against Trinity College, Kandy in their traditional \u2018Bradby Shield\u2019 game (36 -0 and 25-6) as well as the records against Wesley 54-3 Vidyartha100-6 and Isipathana 40 -3.<\/span><\/p>\n