The position of hooker remains as a key position in the game of rugby. The player who occupies this berth plays a key role in set pieces and is also a nippy player to steal the ball in the break down situations to enable his team to make the all-important scoring opportunities. Rajeev Perera was a player of that calibrre who stole the limelight with his extra ordinary skills binding in the front row in the ‘pack’ which earned him the nick name ‘Pika’ for his belligerent performance handling the rugby ball from his school days till he reached the international level.
Rajeew Perera was born in 1979 and his father was Harold Perera a former Volleyball player and Athlete representing De Mazenod College, Kandana later served as a Provincial Councilor in the Wattala Pradeshiya Sabha. Eyvon Silva is his mother who is a housewife. He has one sister Dilshani an Athlete represented Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya. Rajeev with over five feet in height and a playing weight of 90 kgs was very particular in maintaining a good physique and engaging in sporting events from his younger days.
He was enrolled at St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitya and completed his academic studies from the primary to higher education there. The launch of his rugby career was an interesting one. While he was in school, he used to play leisure rugby using mango seeds with his friends during the intervals. It was Shanuka Fonseka son of the famous former rugby player Cicero Fonseka who also encouraged him to take up playing rugby along with Sunil Aponso the rugby master in charge at college, who spotted him and got him to join the school junior rugby team, as he had no idea of the game. He embarked on his school rugby career with the under -13 team coached by late B.K. Ramachandra who identified him as a player just couple of days before making his debut with the under-13 tournaments, with mere two days of training
In under-15 age group they became All-Island Milo champions under Shanuka Fonseka’s captaincy coached by his father, where none of the opponents were able to score a single point against them in the whole tournament. As a result, they toured Malaysia to play the All-Island Malaysian tournament in which they ended runner-up. In the under-17 team which was led by Kirk Williams they won the XV-a-side school tournament. He played for the college first XV team for four years as a regular hooker which was coached byretired senior DIG Nimal Lewke and Ajith Abeyratne. His captains were Sanjeewa Abeygunawardena (1995) unbeaten side, Kirk Williams (1996) Presidents Trophy runner-up, Achala Silva (1997) and 1998 team was captained by him.
After his memorable school rugby career, he started playing for Havelock Sports Club joining them in 1998 soon after school. In his first year, he launched his club rugby under the captaincy of Thusitha Peiris and coached by Ana Saranapala, whom he rates as his ‘God Father’ throughout his Club Rugby career. Ana subsequently introduced him to late George Simpkin who was the National Coach that time. He donned the Park Club jersey for about 13 years and played a pivotal role towards their success. While he was a player there, he was called for National duty to play for the Sri Lanka XV-a-side team under Yohan Taylor’s coaching where they won the first Asian Five Nation division one tournament in Singapore. He was an extremely mobile player on the field and was brisk in handling the loose ball especially stealing the ball at break down situations. This earned the name ‘Pika’ due to his quick reactions. During his tenure in theNational team, he played under Pradeep Basnayake, Pavithra Fernando and Namal Rajapaksa’s captaincy. He had the privilege of playing both with top local and International players such as Sudath Sampath, Leonard de Zilva, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Joseph Waqa, Willi Thahituwa and Hale Tipole few to be named. His best year in rugby was in 2012 where they won the league by beating Kandy by 50 points to 19.
His mother never wanted to see him playing this game since it was a highly body contact game, but after convincing her she granted the go-ahead to continue playing, after which a few of his cousins took up handling the rugby ball like Suhiru Anthony, Sharo Fernando and Shenol Silva. He consistently locked horns for Havelock in the starting lineup and during his tenure they won three knockout trophies and finally in 2012 winning the League was a memorable one in his career.
His wife Kanchana Perera, is working at HNB who stood as the pillar of strength in his rugby career in representing the National team and to complete the World Rugby L3 Coach and as an Educator successfully. She is always behind him as a shadow for most of his achievements. He has two kids with elder one is 13 (Roshdan) and younger one Viyan who is just over eight years old. He is presently working as Brand and Client Relations manager at Nation Lanka Finance and special thanks should go to his employer for giving him all the support to continue with both when he was a player and Coach. He also thanks Asanga Senaviratne who identified his coaching abilities and supported him to become a coach.
