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by Richard Dwight

The launch of the 'Old Peterites Rugby Club' on Monday evening at the St. Peter's College lecture hall, had a historic flying start, with the announcement that a team of ruggerites from the newly constituted club, comprising young old boys and those of the school, will be winging their way to participate in the All India Rugby Tournament to be held in Mumbai, from September 22 to 29.

No sooner the preliminaries with its trimmings and embellishments that mark an occasion such as this was over the Chairman of the Old Peterites Rugby Club, Camillus Abeygoonewardene, in his inaugural address said that all Peterites young and old should be happy to witness the coming into being of the OPRC and, that he personally was thankful to be of service in fostering a spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie, within the club for the greater good of all Peterites through rugby.

The Peterite rugby team he emphasised has done exceptionally well this year, with six of its players being selected to represent Sri Lanka in the world Youth Rugby Championships in Chile, they almost came close to be schools league champions and did well to emerge schools' sevens winners - Camillus said that this tour to Mumbai was in recognition and appreciation of the teams' fine achievements during the season.

He concluded by thanking Singer, Bodyline Green Lanka, George Steuarts and yet other old boys for their assistance towards the tour.

The President of the OBU, Gerry De Mel, said the main objective of firstly forming the OP Cricket Club earlier and, not the OP Rugby Club, was to enable Peterites leaving school to continue in these sports through. He felt that it's not everyone who could represent leading established clubs at the highest level and therefore was of the view the OPCC and RC could afford that opportunity to young Old Peterites.

Rev. Fr. Felician Perera, Rector of St. Peter's was indeed a happy man and apart from thanking the media and others for their presence went out to congratulate the ruggerites of St. Peter's in winning the Schools' Rugby Sevens in Kandy. He stressed that the classroom and the sportsfield were complementary to each other, for one is incomplete without the other to bring out a whole being through holistic education - where students with much fellowship are moulded to be loyal and patriotic, to so become lights to drive away the darkness.

The others associated at the launch were Fr. Sunil Ranjit, Sports Co-ordinator, Nivard Cabraal, former OBU President, Sunil Aponso, Master-in-Charge rugby, Coach S. W. Chang and Maurice Perera. The seven day tour in Mumbai will have the following ruggerites making the trip - Dilan Abeygoonewardene (captain), Mario Oorloff, Dilanka Wijesekera, Asela Abeykoon, Tariq Zuhair, Shantha Dharmaratne, Janaka Fernando, Rumaiz Ishak, Lanka Perera, Ranidu Pieris, Orville Fernando, Mohamed Renaz, Rukshan Wijesinghe, Danaya Nonis, C. Amerasinghe, Rohan Anthony, Philip Esmingharchchi, Hiran Bibile Sunanda Fernando, Devapriya Fernando, Christopher Tissaarachchi Dinuka Jayasinghe, Sanjeeva Abeygoonewardene and Ramesh Rayappan.

The officials accompanying the squad are chef-de-mission Camillus Abeygoonewardene, Manager Trinesh Fernando, master-in-charge rugby Sunil Aponso and Coach S. W. Chang. There will be teams from Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Orissa, Chennai and Manipur.

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