Former Sri Lanka national captain and two-time schools rugby league winning coach Dushanth Lewke will take reigns as head coach at CR & FC for the upcoming 2019/20 season.
A household name in the local rugby arena, Dushanth Lewke has a reputation of being a disruptive third-row player having played a majority of his rugby at Kandy Sports Club and CR & FC.
Having played the sport at the highest form, Dushanth took up coaching as an assistant for Royal College and in 2018 was tipped to take on the post of head coach following the exit of Sanath Martis.
In 2018, Lewke’s Royal College team emerged league champions undefeated and later in 2019, the team led by Thulaib Hassen repeated the same feat.
Royal became the 1st team to win the League title on three consecutive years in the 21st century.
This year’s league triumph was a significant achievement for Royal College and Lewke with the team becoming the first team to the league title three times in a row in the 21st century.
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It will be a fresh challenge for the former Royalist when he takes up this new challenge with CR & FC. A club that was tipped to be on the top 3 saw a disappointing fate at the conclusion of the tournament.
Former Sri Lanka and Kandy SC front row veteran Kishore Jehan will be in charge of the forwards for CR & FC. Known as ‘Chilla’, Kishore was a stand-out prop propelling Kandy Sports Club to a number of league titles in his career spanning over a decade.
Kishore Jehan in action for Kandy
Mushtaq Jiffrey will continue in the CR & FC coaching department and will be the team’s assistant coach.
The Dialog Rugby League season for 2019/20 is expected to start in early November.
