Lasitha Maduranga Attanagoda in action. Picture by Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy Sports Spl.Corr
Lasitha Maduranga Attanagoda is an old boy of St.Sylvester’sCollege,Kandy who started schooling from Grade.I of the School and he started playing rugby at the age of eleven years. At that time the Under 12 rugby team was coached by Nimal Fernando and Dulip Mettananda. His Under 13 rugby coach was Gihan Chandrika Silva and Under 16 coaches were Jagath Gunawardena and Sampath Silva. Lasitha’s senior level coaches were S.A. Niyadigala, Prasad Indunil, Aruna Rankothge and G.Gunadasa. All these coaches of St.Sylvester’s made him a Rugby Star and he was in the School Rugby team from the start.
Lasitha captained the Under 13 school team in 2005, Under 16 team in 2008, Under 18 team in 2010 and under 20 team in 2012. He played as No.8 in the first XV rugby team for five years from 2008 to 2012. He won school colours for rugby from 2009 to 2012 continuously and in 2012 he was awarded the College Crown for rugby. Lasitha was selected to the Junior National Rugby pool in 2012 and he was the second versatile rugby player of St.Sylvester’s after Manjula Pathirana who represented Kandy SC at the Clifford Cup Rugby Tournament
Lasitha joined the Kandy Sports Club in the year 2013 and since then he has represented the champion rugby team continuously for more than eight years as prop-forward in the League and Knock-out Champion teams. He played along with outstanding rugby players of the calibre of Fazil Marija, Sean Wijesinghe, Gayan Weeraratne, Roshan Weeraratne, Saliya Kumara and Kishore Jehan. At Kandy SC the coaches were Yohan Taylor,Sean Wijesinghe, Fazil Marija and Viraj Prashantha. Lasitha is an IRB Level 1 rugby coach and he was the coach at his Alma Mater for the Under 12 and Under 13 rugby teams in 2013 and 2014. Currently Lasitha is employed at Union Bank PLC.
Lasitha Maduranga is grateful to Malik Samarawickrema, the Vice Principal of St.Sylvester’s College, A.K.B.Dodanwela, and the coaches for the encouragement and support given to him.
