Sri Lanka national skipper and sevens sensation Fazil Marija has insisted that veteran coach and former player Ronnie Ibrahim continue his coaching career despite his move into retirement in 2012.
Ronny Ibrahim is one of the most esteemed rugby coaches in the country, was a key architect in moulding Sri Lanka rugby in his extensive coaching career of over 10 years. The rugby guru has an immaculate track record in the coaching arena starting from his alma-mater and later going on to the extent of coaching the national sides of both Sri Lanka and India. In the early 2000’s when Ronny Ibrahim took up the whistle, Kingswood College was an ordinary outfit that played average rugby and it was Ibrahim that plotted Kingswood’s glory days.
Sri Lankan skipper Fazil Marija relates that his first mentor was none other than Ronny Ibrahim and he has been the coach that moulded Fazil to be a stand out player.
“He (Ronny), is the one who identified my talent during my school time and made me a proper fly half. If not for him, I would have never been in this position. It is a shame that he had to quit coaching whereas Sri Lankan rugby can get a lot more from him.
He should come back to the coaching field as I believe lot of the youngsters can take so much from him and he can do a lot more to develop the sport in the country..”
Fazil believes that rugby can get so much more from the veteran with Sri Lanka widening their scope in the sport. His retirement in 2012 was a huge blow for the rugby world according to Fazil and he believes Ronny needs to make his comeback sooner or later.
The Kingswood alumni was once coach of the Sri Lankan national side for the Serendib cup which made history defeating Poland and was also the coach for the Indian nationals sevens side.Starting from the year 2003, Ronny Ibrahim took Kingswood College to triple crown contenders for three successive years; a record still to be broken. The year 2005 which was coached by Ronny and captained by Eranda Weerakkody went down in the Kingswood history books as they won all the matches on offer took the title of being one of the greatest teams they have ever produced.
Ronny’s achievement in bringing Navy Sports Club from being a lower grade club to be a stronghold in the Sri Lankan rugby format is indeed commendable. In 2009 under his mentorship, the sailors were able to break the Kandy dominancy defeating them for the first time in ten years. The 2009-2012 era which Ronny was in charge, he took kept Navy within the top three positions alongside Kandy and CR & FC.
Ibrahim has produced nearly 50 national players which speaks volumes about his capabilities as a coach and for the first time in history Navy SC under his supervision produced over 20 players for National duty in a year. Amongst some of the high profile players he coached, the current Sri Lanka skipper Fazil Marija, Achala Perera, Dev Anand, Aravinda Udangamuwa, Rizmeer Jabbar, Roshan and Gayan Weeraratne, Naveen Wijetunga, Eranda Weerakkody, Gayan Ratnage, Heshan Premaratne, Akram Rifa, PiyumalManchanayake, Ruchira Rathnage and RizwanNazar to name a few.
