Thomians face acid test against Joes

Chris Dhambarage

S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia will face an acid test when they take on the unbeaten St. Joseph's College side in their annual inter school rugby encounter for the Lady Jayatilleke Shield at Longden Place today.

The Josephians are enjoying a splendid season where they have made a clean sweep while winning all seven matches in the Singer under 20 Division One Group B league tournament.

In the process St. Joseph's College have also established two new records in the current season. They defeated Lumbini MV by a massive margin of 82 points to nil to register the biggest victory this season while their wing three quarter Sachintha Maduranga is the leading try scorer with a total of 20 tries to his credit.

St. Joseph's College are now just six points away from reaching the 300 mark this season and they have conceded a mere 34 points to their opponents from their seven outings.

They are confident that they could regain the Lady Jayatilleke Shield this time as they have vastly improved their skills and strategies in all aspects of the game. In contrast S. Thomas' College are currently placed fifth in the latest points table of the Singer inter school under 20 Division One Group A league tournament.

However they will take the field with a great amount of confidence after having recorded one of the biggest victories this season where they had the better of Vidyartha College Kandy 66 nil on their home grounds at Mount Lavinia.

In addition the Thomians also recorded impressive victories against St. Anthony's College, St. Peter's College, Dharmaraja College and Isipatana College respectively. The two teams started playing rugby since 1955 and the Lady Jayatilleke Shield was introduced by the late Lucien Jayatilleke an old Joe in 1966 in memory of his mother Lady Evelyn Jayatilleke.

St. Joseph's College were the first holders of this prestigious Shield by virtue of their victory in 1966 under Rohan Jayatilleke (son of Lucien Jayatilleke). The last Josephian victory was recorded way back in 1999 under Laksitha Gunaratne. S. Thomas' College won last year's encounter under Johann Fernando in a thriller at Longden place.