Isipatana - studded with eleven coloursmen

Chris Dhambarage

Former champions Isipatana College with eleven coloursmen and two national players in their ranks are confident of maintaining an unbeaten record when the new inter school rugby season kicks off this week.

The lads from Havelock Park will be up against St. Peter’s College in their opening match of the season on Friday at Bambalapitiya. Earlier Isipatana had the better of D. S. Senanayake College by 25 points to nil in a friendly game.

They also figured in two warm up matches against CR and FC and CH and FC in addition to their traditional fixture against the old boys team. Isipatana College have always lived upto expectations as a major force in the schools rugby scene despite not having a playground of their own.

But they have worked hard every year to achieve some great results while producing some outstanding ruggerites in the past who have gone to represent the country with distinction. The Isipatana College Rugby Chairman Hassan Sinhawansa said that thy have produced a total of 53 national players since 1960 including six Sri Lanka captains namely Hisham Abdeen, Nalin de Silva, Viraj Prasantha, Champika Nishantha, Sudath Sampath and Sajith Mallikarachchi.

Incidentally Isipatana’s contribution to Sri Lanka rugby was quite clear during their recent triumph against Thailand where a total of 37 points out of 51 points came through the efforts of six former Isipatana ruggereites namely Ashan de Costa, Lasith de Costa, Dinesh Kumara Dinsuha Chaturanga, Reza Mubarak and Srinath Suriyabandara.

This year they have already clinched the Western Province seven a side tournament and also reached the semifinals of the All Island seven a side tournament organized by the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association. Isipatana College started their off season training way back in November and then switched to their usual practices from February. However their progress have been somewhat disrupted without a ground of their own.

As a result their training have been restricted to just three days per week at Havelocks Sports Club and that too for a period of only two hours. Despite these many setbacks Isipatana College are determined to make an impact once again under the guidance of coaches Shamly Nawaz and Daham Sampath.

Last year Isipatana College experienced mixed fortunes where they were placed sixth in the League tournament and were the runners up in the President’s Trophy knock out tournament. But they were able to make a clean sweep while winning all seven-a-side tournaments during the season.

They emerged champions in the annual Singer under 20, Western Province, All Island and Zahira College sevens and also clinched the Under 18 All Island ten a side tournament. However in the league tournament they had a shock start while going down to their arch rivals Trinity College Kandy 10-29 at Longden Place.

But Isipatana College came back strongly like a true champion outfit to beat a strong Royal outfit by 17 points to 12 points and retain the Major Milroy Fernando Memorial Trophy. Isipatana College came out with even a better performance in their next outing as they outplayed St. Anthony’s College Kandy by 32 points to 10 points in a one sided encounter at Havelock Park.

They followed up this with another convincing 26 points to nil victory over Dharmaraja College Kandy at the Bogambara Stadium. Isipatana College then suffered a stunning 15-17 defeat at the hands of S. Thomas’ College at Mount Lavinia in a thrilling game in which they could have forced a draw had skipper Dinusha Chaturanga added the extra points to their second try.

In another unfortunate situation Isipatana College went down to Kingswood College Kandy 3-6 with skipper Dinsuha Chaturanga again missing a last minute penalty from kicking range.

They figured in another close encounter where they went down fighting by a solitary point 7-8 against St. Peter’s College at Havelock Park. But Isipatana College eventually concluded last year’s inter school rugby season with a rousing 62 points to three points victory over Vidyartha College Kandy in their final league fixture at Havelock Park.

The Isipatana College First XV Rugby Pool for 2009

PROP FORWARDS: Dinuk Dananjaya, Danushka Sooriyarachchi, Mohamed Wasim, M. Prasad

HOOKER: Thilina Lanka

SECOND ROWERS: Sajid Suhayb, S. Amaldeniya

FLANKERS: Mohamed Hamza, Tharindu Lakshan, Deshan Arachchige, Uthpala Seneviratne

NUMBER EIGHT: Tharindu Siriwardena

SCRUM HALF: Mohamed Rizwan, Shenal Dias

FLY HALF: Niroshana Fernando (captain)

CENTRES: Prasad Devinda, Roshan Attanayake, Yuresh Fonseka

WINGERS: Ashan Chaturanga, Vishwamithra Jayasinghe, Chanaka Prasad

FULL BACK: Prasad Devinda, Dilanka Jayasekera

COACH: Shamly Nawaz and Daham Samath

The fixtures: April 24: v St. Peter’s at Bambalapitiya

May 2: v Mahanama at Havelock Park

May 9: v Kingswood at Nittawela

May 16: v Royal at Reid Avenue

May 23: v Trinity at Pallekelle

May 31: v St. Joseph’s at Havelock Park

June 6: v S. Thomas’ at Havelock Park

June 12 v Thurstan at Longden Place