Schools rugby off with a bang, but black mark on discipline

By Special Correspondent

The inter school under 19 league rugby season started off with a bang this week with the game against Dharmaraja vs Trinity producing a memorable win for the former because the ‘lions’ are such a big name in the sport of rugby union.

Many rugby writers jumped to conclusions far too early this season and termed such a win a shock. They did just that when St. Anthony’s knocked the daylights out of the Josephians with a runaway 22-12 win at Bogambara on June 17 (Saturday). This writer’s argument is that this season is still in its infancy and if the losing sides are considered as favourites so early in the season then the writer is either biased or knows so little about the strengths and weaknesses of most teams.

School rugby is very professional in Sri Lanka and even the coaches are dedicated and educated in rugby union’s latest techniques and training methods; hence all games will be hotly contested and teams would certainly make progress as the season continues.

S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia led by centre Viyaan de Silva managed to start the season on a winning note beating Wesley 19-13 ; a feat which enabled the lads from the school by the sea to take home the Sir Oliver Goonatilake Shield which was on offer at the match. The Thomians had an average season last year and like one newspaper quite rightly said in a preview about the school that wears the blue-black jersey it is in search of past glories. One can remember the glorious run S.Thomas’ had from 1989 to 1991, then in year 2000 under Gavin Jayasekare and for the last time under Shawin Kapuwatte when they won the under 20 president’s trophy knockout tournament in 2009. There was one year (2013) when The Thomains were demoted to the B Division, but that year they produced one of their best teams under Devin Jayasinghe and won all their traditional games apart from earning a promotion to the A Division. Much is expected of them this season under the tutelage of coach Shamly Nawaz.

The Royal vs St.Peter’s game produced a cracker at Bambalapitiya with the host team pulling off the game by 11 points to 5. It was shocking to see some of the worst behaviors in school rugby at this game by the players, but fortunately the referee had a decent control of the game till the end. The worst point in the game came when the referee went up to the Royal skipper and gave the warning to him to control his players because there were complaints that Royalists were biting opponents in the scrum and maul situations (video evidence of this is available in social media). There was also footage on social media where a Peterite player was seen landing his knee into a Royal player as he ran into join the rest of the team to celebrate the victory. Peterite old boys have shown much concern in their comments on social media about having discipline at ‘home’ because we’ve never seen the Peterites showing aggression in this manner other than when playing clean hard rugby.

Isipatana are now a different quantity in rugby and play the game more with their forwards than before. We remember those marauding forwards whom they had last season, but the new faces in the side were equal to the challenge and lived up to expectations. Skipper Naveen Kanishka epitomised the true qualities of a skipper and controlled the game with his running and kicking skills on wet and slippery conditions at Bogambara. The winners ran in five glorious tries and led 20 nil at the breather. The beauty in Isipatana rugby is their support play and the very low margin they leave for errors. Coach Saliya Kumara has got a naturally motivate side and it’s interesting to see how they negotiate the bigger challenges that’ll come their way from sides like S.Thomas’, St. Anthony’s and new kids on the block D.S Senanayake who are back in Division 1 Segment A rugby after earning a promotion this season.

Vidyartha did well to open the season with a 26-19 win against Science at Bogambara on June 16 (Friday).