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The Fifth Annual Rugby encounter between Thurstan & Wesley for the Diyanesh Rajarathnam Trophy will played on 19th Friday at the CR & FC Grounds Longden Place. The score to date stands 3 to 1 in favour of Thurstan.

Diyaneh Rajarathnam was an outstanding product of Thurstan who had the unique honour of Captaining both Cricket and Rugby Teams. In Rugby he played as Fly half and inside Three quarter was also a place kicker of repute. Ironically his first match was against Wesley his former school at the Campbell Park under the captaincy of Upali Hewage. The match was won by Thurstan 8-3 with Diyanesh contributing 5 points. Diyanehs's elder brother Amaresh captained Wesley cricket Team in 1969. Thurstan & Wesley took up to rugby in the mid fifties around the same time & it was only in 2001 that Wesley was able to beat Thurstan. Thus the similarities & the close connections between the two schools over the years makes this encounter an interesting affair.

Both Thurstan & Wesley can be proud of their contribution to Sri Lanka's Rugby. Jeff Rutnam, Deepal de Zoysa, Sunil Jayakody, E.K.R. Wijewardena, Ranjit Jayawardena, Dushyantha Samarasekera, Tissa Nanayakkara, Rohan Boudweyn Chula Dharmadasa and Harsha Mayadunne stand out among the Thurstanites while Reggie Bartholamuesz, Cavarn Gauder, Iqbal Musafer, Zubair Dercy, Eddie Buell and former CR skipper Kishan Musafer figures prominently in Wesley's hall of fame.

This year Wesley has fared extremely well including a record breaking win over Trinity are considered one of the strongest school teams and will undoubtedly go out as firm favourites to retain the trophy. Thurstan on the other hand are going through one of their leanest seasons with a young and inexperienced team, but are expected to give a good account of themselves in the Big game.

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