Radhika Hettiarachchi (born 14 November 1977) is a Sri Lankan

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player and coach. He captained both

Sri Lanka national rugby union team The Sri Lanka national rugby union team, known as the Tuskers, represents Sri Lanka in men's international rugby union. The team has yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup. They have the longest tradition of organised club rugby in Asia, ...

and

Sri Lanka national rugby sevens team The Sri Lanka national rugby sevens team, known as the Tuskers (similar to their counterpart national rugby union team), represents Sri Lanka in men's international rugby sevens. They have competed in the Hong Kong Sevens since the 1980s. In 1 ...

. He is regarded as one of the finest rugby sevens players to have emerged from Sri Lanka and he is also nicknamed as Iron Man of Sri Lanka Rugby.

Career

He pursued his primary and secondary education at the

Dharmaraja College Dharmaraja College (), founded in 1887, is a boys' school in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist school with around 300+ teaching staff and over 4,000+ students. A land area of is owned by the school spreading over half of the Dharmaraja hill ...

in Kandy and joined Central Province XV rugby side just after leaving the school. He later signed up for Kandy Sports Club in 1997 where he spent major part of his club career and also had brief spells with Colombo Hockey and Football Club. He turned for Kandy SC from 1997 to 2005 and then after a gap of three years he returned to Kandy SC in 2008 and played for the club until 2010. He was a member of the Sri Lankan side which finished at sixth position in the men's rugby sevens competition at the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games, officially known as the XIV Asian Games and also known as Busan 2002 (), were an international multi-sport event held in Busan, South Korea from September 29 to October 14, 2002. Due to schedule impediments the football tour ...

and was also part of the fifteen member Sri Lankan squad which competed in the men's rugby union competition at the

. Under his captaincy, Kandy Sports Club won the Caltex League Trophy as part of the

Sri Lanka Rugby Championship The Sri Lanka Rugby Championship, known as the Nippon Paint Inter-Club Rugby League for sponsorship reasons, is the major national rugby union club competition, held between the top Division 'A' rugby sides, in Sri Lanka. The annual home and awa ...

in 2004. Under his captaincy tenure, Sri Lanka won Plate Championship titles in three consecutive years in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

at the Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Sevens. He was known for his exploits in a match against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at the

2009 Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens, referred to as the Cathay Pacific Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens for sponsorship reasons is the 5th stop on the IRB Sevens World Series. The 2009 event was played between the 27–29 March, and was won by Fiji national rugby ...

series where he scored two crucial tries and also had physical contact with the Aussie opponents before scoring those tries. Despite his valiant efforts, Australia registered a comfortable victory with 56–12 at the end of the full time. In 2009, he was initially handed a two-year ban for pulling out of the national squad in protest regarding the appointment of Pavithra Fernando as the captain of the side for the Dubai Asia Five Nations series. However, he was given green light by the ministry of sports to play for Sri Lanka at the 2009 Carlton Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens. He was part of the Sri Lankan rugby team which finished at sixth position in the men's rugby sevens competition at the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

. He also went onto captain relatively inexperienced Sri Lankan rugby sevens side which finished at thirteenth position in the men's rugby sevens competition during the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth that was held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 201 ...

. He also subsequently captained the national side at the 2010

Malaysia Sevens The Malaysia Sevens is an annual rugby sevens#Rugby union sevens, rugby union sevens tournament contested by national teams. The event was first hosted as a leg of the IRB Sevens World Series, IRB World Sevens Series in 2000-01 World Sevens Serie ...

, 2010

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...

and 2010

Singapore Sevens The Singapore Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament contested by national teams. It was first hosted as part of the IRB World Sevens Series in 2002. The Standard Chartered Bank was the original title sponsor. It was effectively replaced i ...

. He joined Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club during the latter part of his rugby playing career and later went onto become a coach after retiring from the game.

Coaching career

He had two coaching spells with the Dharmaraja College XV in 2013/14 season and 2015/16 season. He guided Dharmaraja College to win their maiden inter-schools league rugby title in 2013. In 2017, he was approved to coach by

Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union Sri Lanka Rugby is the Sports governing body, governing body for rugby union in Sri Lanka. It is one of the oldest governing bodies in the world, being founded as the Ceylon Rugby Football Union in 1908. History The Ceylon Rugby Football Union ...

after serving a six-month ban for breaching the code of conduct during a school rugby encounter between St. Joseph's College and Dharmaraja College during 2016. In June 2018, he was appointed as the head coach for both Nepal national men's and women's rugby teams by the Nepal Rugby Association. He was appointed as head coach of the Sri Lanka Army Sports Club in 2019 and was reappointed to the position again ahead of the 2020 club rugby season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hettiarachchi, Radhika 1977 births Living people Sri Lankan rugby union players Sri Lankan rugby sevens players Rugby union players at the 2002 Asian Games Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games rugby sevens players for Sri Lanka Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Sri Lanka Alumni of Dharmaraja College Place of birth missing (living people)

Career

Coaching career

See also

References