Schools produced high-octane rugby at ‘sevens’

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Schoolboys have got a great opportunity to get back on to the rugby field after a lapse of nearly two years thanks to the organising of the provincial seven-a-side schools rugby tournaments. The two tournaments held in Colombo and Kandy produced exhilarating rugby. There were enough signs to show that the boys were training under Covid 19 regulations and being true to their commitment to the sport. It was great to see the schoolboys back in action because spectators haven’t witnessed official junior rugby tournaments since 2018.

Seven-a-side rugby demands more understanding between players because this version is faster and quick thinking is needed. But we saw that the players were in no mood to succumb to the pressures caused by a restricted environment and gave all they could. This has been the form in school rugby compared to club and national rugby because you only get to represent the school just for a few selected years and thus the urge to even throw your weight behind the school’s rugby team regardless of how big the challenge is.

In the Western Province tournament played at Reid Avenue St. Peter’s College did very well to beat the stiff resistance put up by S. Thomas’ College and take home the Cup Championship. The Peterites won the final 19-17 in a cliffhanger where both teams were stretched till the final whistle. One of the surprises was Isipatana College having a tough time at the tournament and having to settle for the Shield Championship. They won this segment at the tournament, but unlike in past tournaments failed to produce that high-octane rugby they are known for.

Wesley played well in the Bowl Championship and downed Science College Mount Lavinia in the final. The fast improving D.S Senanayake College got the better of Royal College with a 21-5 win in the Plate Championship final.

The Central Province Sevens, held a week later, showed that school rugby is not only concentrated in Colombo. Trinity College produced thunder throughout the tournament and smashed the daylights out of Kingswood in the Cup Championship final. Ravindu Wickremesinghe (2), Dodanwatte (1), Tevin Karunanayake (1) and Dharmapala punched holes in the Kignswood defence at regular intervals. The final score read 33-7 in favour of Trinity College. Trinity like Royal doesn’t take this version of rugby that seriously, but when it does the school produces a formidable side which is capable of bringing down giants who have made a name in the seven-a-side version of rugby union.

Over the years the Kandy schools have come up in the sport of rugby. If you observe closely outstation schools are better organised to play rugby now and there are enough coaches willing to offer their services. Also there are a few rugby academies contributing to the game and Rugby Promotional Foundation headed by one time SLR employee Ajith Fernando is one that’s in the forefront and much talked about these days. Great work was done by two rugby stalwarts the game produced- Hisham Abdeen and Dilroy Fernando- and the duo also contributed to the game by conducting their rugby academies. We didn’t hear much about these two rugby giants when the pandemic was raging. Coming back to the school rugby season that just began Sri Rahula College beat St. Sylvester’s College in the Shield Competition while Vidyartha College and Dharmaraja College had to settle as winners of the Bowl and Plate Championships respectively.

The Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) came out of the shackles placed on them by the pandemic to organise these two tournaments. According to the SLSRFA more such provincial tournaments would be played in North-Western and Southern Provinces in the future to decide the finalists who would contest the all-island final. The two tournaments were sponsored by Dialog Axiata PLC and organised by the SLSRFA.