Number eights interacts with the scrum-half at the back of the scrum to control and provide a clean ball for the backs. The number eight can also pick the ball from the back of the scrum and run with it or pass it to the scrum-half. . Sumedha Malewana was a player who occupied this key position for his school club and country in the international rugby arena putting up a profound performance.
Sumedha was born in 1979 in Kegalle district and his father was the late Mettananda Malewana, a businessman by profession. Mother is Ghana a retired Teacher Instructor . He has a sibling Kapila. He was admitted to Vidyartha College, Kandy in 1992 due to his sporting ability and later completed his academic studies there in 1998. Earlier he attended St. Mary’s and Swarna Jayanthi Maha Vidyalaya in Kegalle before joining Vidyartha.
With a hefty frame heavily built, Sumedha was motivated and encouraged by Lenin, one of his hostel mates, who apparently played junior rugby at school. He finally started handling the oval shaped ball with the under 15 team in 1994. Sanath Bandara, a former Vidyarthian taught him the basics of the game and was his junior school rugby coach. Gradually, he matured as a talented player and established a permanent place in the College first XV team. He donned the college first XV jersey for three years from 1996 to 1998 as a number eight . He played in 1996 team under Amila Ratnayake, in 1997 under Niroshan Ekanayake and in 1998 under Upul Wijeratne’s captaincy which was coached by Viper Guneratne (senior) and Piyal Navaratne. In 1998 his team lost the schools league to Zahira 23-21 in the final after a closely contested game at Sugathadasa Stadium.
No sooner he completed his school career, one of his schoolmates Saman Edama, who was playing for Havelocks invited him to join them and went on to play the 1998/99 season. Subsequently two of his other friends Navantha de Silva and Panda Wijeratne invited him to join the Sri Lanka Navy to play rugby. He represented them from 1999 to 2005 before they stopped rugby due the to the outbreak of the war in the country. He was granted permission to play for any other club and joined CH and FC to play the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons. After the situation became normal, he rejoined the Sailors in 2009 and sailed for them until 2014 to play rugby. In 2010, he was appointed as the captain as they became third in the league and ended runner-up in the knockout tournament losing to Kandy in the final. He also represented the Jaffna Challengers at the Carlton International Rugby Sevens Tournament which they won in 2011.
While he was playing club rugby in 2002, he had the National team call and went to lock horns until 2013. He competed in several tournaments for the country Internationally which included the 2002 Rugby Asiad at Bangkok, Thailand led by Asanga Rodrigo, In 2004 at Hong Kong captained by Pradeep Basanayake, In 2007 in Colombo under Jeewa Galgamuwa. He then played in the five Nations tournament in 2011 under Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s captaincy in Manila, Philippines followed by the same tournament in 2013 under the same captain in Colombo, which was his penultimate tournament before his retirement from International rugby.
During his tenure with the National team in 2003, he toured with the National team to Hong Kong to play a test series. Later played against Kazakhstan, China, Japan and Korea at the Asian Games and went on to grab the ‘Most Valuable Player of the Tournament’ in 2011 in Philippines, Manila, which he rates as the best achievement in his rugby career. Retired senior DIG Nimal Lewke, Tony Amit and Phil Greening the current USA Rugby Director were his coaches at National level.
After hanging up his boots , he took up coaching and completed the IRB level-1 and 2 coaching programmes under Sir Gordon Tietjens and Tana Umanga the two great New Zealanders. His first coaching assignment was with Ananda College, Colombo in 2014 then moved to D.S. Senanayake and continued his tenure for three years from 2015 to 2017, where he was instrumental in guiding them to a promotion to ‘A’ Division from lower category, after three years. Under his coaching they lost the Sevens Cup semi final to St. Peters losing 12/14 in the last minute. In the 2018/19 season, he strived hard to guide his own school to gain ‘A’ division status after nine years.
He also guided the Vidyartha sevens team to win the ‘Plate Championship’ in 2018 followed by the under-18 Cup runners up. Apart from his coaching schools he also was appointed as assistant coach of the Navy team for many years’. He was the assistant coach of Western Warriors who won the championship in 2014, which Stefano Cacau the Fijian legend handled as head coach.
His spouse is Chamila de Soysa and his two children are Duthira son and Devra. At present he is coaching St. Anthony’s College, Kandy.
