![]() ![]() His father Vincent Ratnam a Thomian, never played rugger for school as there was no rugger during his time, but played for Havelock Sports Club.īoth Dan and his elder brother Jeff led the Park club, and played for the country together, in the famous All India tournament His nephew Shane Pinder too played for this club. In 1968 under Noel Brohier became Clifford Cup Knockout champions, In 1979 under Jeyer Rodriguesz, 1970 under Jeff Ratnam, 1971 Tyrone Holdenbottle, 1972 Dan captained, 1973 Royden de Silva. Dan first played for Havelock SC under Gamini Fernando in 1967 the year they won the League and the Clifford Cup Knock outs. From NCC he crossed over to the Park club in 1967 and ended his rugby career in 1973. In 1966 Kandy Lake Club who won the "B" division championship and were promoted to "A" division, lost only to NCC. ![]() He first played for NCC, in the inter club "B" division tournament from 1964 to 1966. ![]() During his playing days Dan Ratnam was a fearless and dashing centre. Wickremasinghe was the principal and there was no rugby at Carey College. He is keen to come back and give whatever he can for the game which helped him attain stardom. He says today rugby is a fast moving sport in the USA. The reply from me was for this credit should go to Malik Samarwickrema and the committee who helped this club to look what it is today.ĭan who lives in California, for well over two and half decades is keen to come back to his motherland. Today the club looks perfect and grand, more like an International Rugby Stadium. He said, when they played the pavilion side was sloppy and they ran downwards to score at that end. This club being the oldest rugby playing club and now in its 141st year. He was very happy and pleased to see the improvements at Nittawela, as he stepped on to this famous rugby grounds after several years. Over here in Kandy he visited the Old Trinitians Sports Club and met his friends Nico de Silva the President and Alex Lazarus and also was seen at Kandy Sports Club. 'Some times this may work on a two way basis but over all the need to develop rugby and compete at a higher level with strength, power speed and commitment to play to win require enormous endurance by players to perform',said dapper Dan. Therefore the need for additional facilities was never a requirement or a dire need for any requests. He said that it was nice to see an abundance of facilities being offered to players, unlike in their days where there was no word called rugby facilities.īut there was amazing enthusiasm by all those who played the game at whatever level and this made rugby very popular. And Jennifer Abeyartne.ĭan says that today the standard of rugby is good in Sri Lanka and likely to grow to great heights unlike in the past. He was in Kandy together with his club mate Hiran Fernando and Haresh Fonseka.They were the guests of D.C. Sri Lanka Rugby history can always vouch for a dazzling rugby player of the caliber of Dan Ratnam, who paved the way and took Havelock Sports Club rugby to dizzy heights in the late 1960's and early 1970. ![]()
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