| Sports |
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| Lions
roar to stall St. Peter's As for me, the best news is the Trinity Under 17 team winning handsomely against the Peterites. Someday this Under 17 team will don the colourful Trinity First XV jersey. As long as the Trinity Second XV keeps on winning, Trinity's rugby future will be bright. Trinity started the season with a warm up game against Vidyartha at their Rugby Stadium in Pallekelle which they won 22-3. In this encounter their forwards played a grand game. In their second outing they met the high riding St. Peter's College. They played their hearts out and showed that they are no push overs as they fought to hold the Peterites to a 20 points all draw. The entire Trinity pack led by the die-hard captain Migara played an excellent game. In this game they crossed Peterite line no less than 3 times. Trinity College was the second school to start rugby in the island. (The first school was Kingswood College, Kandy). They have a proud history. Most of their top players stop playing rugby after leaving school as they go abroad for studies or take up planting as a career. They have produced some magnificent players who have gone to play top-level rugby for clubs in Kandy and Colombo and have gone on to represent the motherland with great pride. Dilip Adihetty, Ashan Ratwatte, Ikram Odayar, Rohan Abeykoon, Imthizam Marikkar, Shah Dole, Thusara Weerasuriya, Duminda de Silva, Suranga Amarasinghe, Sean Wijesinghe, Niranjan Ranasinghe, Rajeev Ganapathy, Kavinda Jayasena and former Sri Lankan captain Haris Omar and the present captain and double International (basket ball and rugby) Pradeep Basnayake are a few of them. They produced the best side in the history of Trinity rugby and probably the best team ever produced by a school in Sri Lanka when Tyrell Rajapakse led the side in 1987. Not only did they remain unbeaten but they also bagged the League as well as the Premadasa Trophy that year. The champion team's line was crossed only once that year during the whole season. They outclassed sides like St. Joseph's, S.Thomas', St. Anthony's by half centuries and no less than seven players were awarded with "Lion" for their excellent performances. This year the "Lions" are led by the hardy Number 8 and excellent leader Migara Maddumapatabendi, a third year player who represented the Junior team at the Asiad in Hong Kong early this year. He was also in the senior sevens pool of 23 players for the famous Bank of Boston Hong Kong Sevens. Migara is a top class player who can be compared to Byrone Fernando one of the best Number 8 players Trinity has ever produced Byrone played with lot of success in 1982. Speaking to The Sunday Times Migara said that they want to remain unbeaten this season. "We will take game by game and we will play our best side for all matches. Our main target is to bring back the Bradby Shield which we won three years ago', said Migara. Trinity has still not encountered S. Thomas', Royal, Isipathana and their home town rivals St. Anthony's! Migara's deputy is another Youth player who represented Sri Lanka at the Asiad, Manoth Vidanagamage. He is the prop forward who is in his third year. His co-prop is Nalaka Thilinakumara. Hooker of the side is another second year player, Mohammed Muthalib. The line out specialists are Michelle Manickam and Eranga Senanayake. The two quick flankers are Buddhika Jayakody and Dhammika Senarath with skipper Migara Maddumapatabendi adding power at number 8. Operating from the base of scrum is Sumeda Jayasundera, who has Ayaz Ainaff as the fly half. He is also the place kicker of the side. The hard running centres are Isuru Jayasena and Mufthi Muneer. They have Hashantha Mendis and Udara Panditharatne as the wingers. Saliya Kumara the only newcomer to Trinity from an outside school, will man the last man of the defence. This year the side is coached by Australian Geoffrey Garland with Alex Lazarus assisting him. With the Old boys specially the 86, 87, 89 Batches supporting them, the boys are all out to give their best to remain unbeaten this season. The
Squad Also in the squad are Jehan Rupasinghe, Roshan Munaweera, Ishan Ratnayake, Avanka Peiris, Hashantha Jayasuriya, Udayanga Stephen, Nilangana Guruge, Nishan Fernando Remaining
Fixtures: Lasitha's
year was the best That year Royal
toured Hong Kong and continued their winning streak. They defeated
the Hong Kong Under-23 Defence team and the Under-19 Hong Kong national
team. Incidentally Lasitha was a member of the Sri Lankan team, led by Hisham Abdeen at the H.K. Asiad - 1988. The team was coached by Dr. Fred Perera, a granite-hard No.8 who played for Royal, CR & FC and Sri Lanka. Fred had a storehouse of knowledge and he coached the side well especially in the practical aspects of the game. In that unbeaten side there were the likes of Anura Dhammika, Thoradeniya and a New Zealand schoolboy Bruce Cameron, who was a student at Royal. Another team that had an excellent record in the schools rugby scene from Royal was the 1976 team led by Sujantha Kumar. They, too were unbeaten, but were held to a draw by S. Thomas' Mt. Lavinia. The 2002 Royal team led by Zulki Hamid went on a record breaking spree winning their games handsomely, but were held to a draw by Isipatana. The 1988 Royal team led by Gunaratne won all their matches. Gunaratne is contributing a lot for the game at Royal and CR & FC (after his retirement) on and off the field. At present he is a SLRFU Council member. |
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