History
Sri Lanka discovered the game of rugby at the same time as India, and the first rugby club, The Colombo Football Club, was founded in Sri Lanka in 1879. The first rugby match played between two selected teams occurred on the 30th of June of that year between Colombo and a 'World' Team. The nation's first 'national' match involved an All Ceylon team against the All Blacks.
In the post-WWII period, S. Muthiah campaigned for the sports introduction into the national police service.
The 1930 and the 1950 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia, also played unofficial matches in Ceylon on their way home.
Despite not performing well on the international stage, Sri Lanka is sometimes considered one of the rugby's success stories, with crowds of forty or fifty thousand turning out for club games.
Sri Lanka's problems have been threefold - firstly, a lack of finance, secondly, third world infrastructure, and thirdly, the country has been war torn for a number of years.
Notable Sri Lankan players include Len Saverimutto, who is the father of scrum half Christian Saverimutto, who was capped three times for Ireland in the 1995-6 season.
Mahesh Rodrigo was a dual international and represented Sri Lanka in the national cricket team; he was a scrum half, and captained the Ceylon XV.
Read more about this topic: Rugby Union In Sri Lanka
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