Former Navy SC and Sri Lanka rugby captain Yoshitha Rajapaksa has decided to hang up his boots after playing one more game this season.
In 2005 he commenced his senior rugby career at S. Thomas’ College and in his final year (2006) captained the team.
“I have played for 15 years now and I think it is time to call it a day,” said Rajapaksa at an impromptu meeting with the Sunday Observer.
“No, I cannot do any coaching in rugby,” was his reply when asked whether he will take to coaching now. Rajapaksa joined the Navy as a lieutenant commander and continued to play his favourite sport rugby.
In 2009 he was appointed captain of the Navy team and in 2012 he went on to captain Sri Lanka that became runners-up in the 2012 Asian Five Nations Division 1 tournament in the Philippines.
The team, with Rajapaksa as captain, were then successful in winning the 2013 Asian Five Nations Division 1 competition and the team qualified to compete in the 2014 HSBC Asian Five Nations tournament in Japan, the winner of which automatically qualified for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately he was injured and unable to play in the 2014 HSBC Asian Five Nations.
But Rajapaksa was also a member of the Sri Lanka Sevens team that won the Bowl at the 2011 Borneo Sevens and played at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
In 2012 he won the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) President’s medal for the Standard Division at the National Handgun Championship conducted by the National Rifle Association of Sri Lanka.