Fourteen-year-old Harsha Samarasinghe will be Sri Lanka’s sole representation at the ongoing Rugby World Cup 2015 in London when he will walk as the official ball carrier in tomorrow’s game at the Leicester City Stadium.
An aspiring rugby player from Trinity College, Harsha played an integral part in last year’s under fourteen team. Standing tall in the outfit, Harsha stood out doing most of the hard work in the line that emerged victorious in the All Island under 14 tournament earlier this year.
It was a dream come true for young Harsha when he found out that he was selected to be one of the ball carriers for the rugby world cup in London. When our reporter asked him what it really felt like, he had this to share.
“My mother came up to me and said there’s a surprise for you. I was lost and I asked what? Her little smile showed me that there is a big surprise for me. Then she said that I got selected to represent Sri Lanka in the upcoming Rugby World Cup with that awesome smile every mother has. I cannot express how I felt that time. It was like a dream.”
The voting took place for a period of two weeks consisting of players from all of the rugby playing schools in the country via SMS and social media. Out of all the candidates who were shortlisted from Sri Lanka, Harsha was the person who polled the highest votes in the voting.
Harsha with his father are currently in London and gets himself prepared to deliver the match ball for the group stage match between Canada and Romania that will be held in the Leicester City Stadium tomorrow starting at 16:45 GMT time. It will be an unforgettable day that Harsha will remember his entire life as he will be the first person to walk onto the field through the players tunnel carrying the match ball for the game in front of the 32,000 fans that will gather around for the match.
This will surely be a morale booster for the young Harsha who takes has high hopes of representing his school 1st XV team and later on the national team. The match ball carrier program is an initiative by DHL who is the official logistics provider for the world cup.
