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Goodbye Charlie –
It was not the finale for a rugby giant
By Rangi Akbar
The tragic death of Charles Wijewardena in Jaffna on Thursday brought back a flood of memories of this great-hearted rugby player. After cutting his teeth at Vidyartha, Wijewardena joined the Air Force and very soon under the tutelage of Air vice Marshall Harry Gunatilleke, turned the Air Force into a match winning outfit with his place kicking.

As a sports reporter my first links with the affable Wijewardena was in the late 60’s when he turned out for Air Force with players of the caliber of Viper Gunaratne and M. Maheswaran to name but two players of the great Air Force outfit. He joined the Air Force in 1968 and was there until 1972. He played rugby for the Police from 1972 to 1982.When the JVP insurgency arose in 1971, Air Force did not play Clifford Cup rugby and most of their players such as Mohan Balasuriya, Viper Gunaratne and Charles Wijewardena turned out for the ‘red shirts’ under Sari de Sylva. With such a crack outfit CR easily won the Clifford Cup that year.

Wijewardena then shifted camp to the Police and played with stalwarts such as Juragen Savanghan, Thirumani, ‘Tanker’ Ibrahim Hamid, Tuan Morseth and Sivendran. His place kicking was again a match winner for the Police on many occasions and they went on to win the Clifford Cup under Anton Benedict. Those were the halcyon days of Police rugby and all opposing teams dreaded meeting the blue jerseys giants. Once during an interview I had with him for The Daily News, Wijewardena said that it was his prowess in the soccer field which prompted him to take place kicks.

He topped the century mark in place kicking in 1979 with 189 points for the season. A thing unheard of in those days and very little attention was placed on place kicking. Scoring tries was the thing that mattered especially when players such as Didacus de Almeida (CR) and Maurice Perera (Havelocks) dominated the scene.

He scored 100 points from the year 1976 to 1980 continuously every season and represented the national team at the 1974 and 1978 Rugby Asiads.
Wijewardena’s place kicking record was lowered by another Police player Nizam Jamaldeen, who is now a coach at Royal.

The last time I met Charles Wijewardena at the old Sunday Times office when Mr. Vijitha Yapa was the Editor, we exchanged pleasantries. But I met a nephew of Charles Wijewardena at the Hatton National Bank in Maharagama - Gihan de Silva - whenever I dropped in at the bank. We used to sit and talk about Charles Wijewardena and it was obvious that Gihan adored his uncle – both as a rugby player and a police officer. Wijewardena was stationed in Kurunegala those days and he did a lot to promote the game in the District.

After retiring from the game he continued to contribute to the game as an administrator serving as Secretary of the Sri Lanka Society of Rugby Football Referees and also as President of the Kurunegala Rugby Football Club.
Wijewardena was promoted as Senior Superintendent of Police and was transferred to Jaffna. He took up the post happily little knowing that Jaffna would be his last post and he would be hacked to death there. He was an honest Police officer at all times. Not a fitting end to a great rugby player.
May the turf lie lightly on him.

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