Joes will provide the shocks

Chris DHAMBARAGE

St. Joseph's College who stole the limelight last year with their exciting brand of Rugby are hoping to produce a repeat performance during the current inter-school rugby season. The Joes will take on Trinity College, Kandy in the curtain raiser match of the season on Saturday at the Pallekelle Stadium.

Last year they set up a high standard on the field and were crowned as the proud Singer inter-school under 20 Group 'B' champions for the first time that also enabled them to gain a promotion into the top division.

St. Joseph's College certainly proved that they fully deserve a place in the 'A' division league by making a clean sweep in last year's tournament where they established a couple of records in the process.

They remained as the only unbeaten side during the entire tournament and were able to collect a staggering 314 points from their maximum of eight outings. This included a record number of 54 tries to their credit and they conceded only 44 points to their opponents.

In fact St. Joseph's College were never challenged by any of their opponents and they also had the opportunity of defeating an 'A' division team S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia by 19 points to 15 at Longden Place. This success in their annual encounter had a great amount of significance as they regained the Lady Jayatilleke Shield after a lapse of nine years having last defeated the Thomians way back in 1998.

Even then what really mattered for St Joseph's College was the league tournament where they were determined to make an impact with the intention of gaining a promotion to the 'A' division.

They accomplished this task to the perfection and were able to make vast strides on the field while setting an example through their brand of fast open rugby.

They launched their campaign with a morale boosting 15-3 victory over Ananda College and followed it up with a more impressive 27-10 triumph against Wesley College.

St. Joseph's College then produced one of their best performances to beat Science College 48-3 and trounced the giant killers Prince of Wales College Moratuwa 37-4.

In the next outing they were able to top the fifty point mark as they cruised to a smashing 56-10 victory against St. Sylvester's College, Kandy.

This was followed by another convincing 24-7 victory against Thurstan College and in the next outing St. Joseph's College ran up the highest score in the season by outplaying Lumbini MV by a huge margin of 82-3.

The last phase of the league tournament was really tough but the Joes certainly stuck to their task and delivered the final blow with a splendid 20-10 victory over Mahanama College who were the closest team to have challenged them for the 'B' division league title.

This season of course it will be a fresh challenge for St. Joseph's College who will be up against some very strong opponents with a total of nine matches on the card. The side is captained by senior player and coloursman Priyan Perera who will play as a centre three quarter.

Incidentally Priyan is the son of another former Josephian ruggerite Prashantha Perera who represented the Darley Road team during the 1975/76 inter school rugby season.

Dynamic flanker and senior coloursman Adrian Hakel is the vice captain of the side.

Vice captain Adrian is of course the son of another distinguished old boy of St. Joseph's College Arthur Hakel who represented the College cricket team in 1968 and 1969 and also went on to captain the College athletic team in 1968.

The third instance where the father son combination has revealed in this year's St. Joseph's team is the case of prop forward Dhanuka Anthony who is the son of former Sri Lanka soccer player Balendran Anthony who also represented the school as a top midfielder in 1971.

St. Joseph's College Rugby Pool for 2009.

Prop Forwards: Dhanuka Anthony, Thurntha Dambadeniya, Tharindu Subasinghe.

Hooker: Kushan Dias, Darren Hakel, Dushan Dep.

Second Rowers: Chirath Perera, Kalana de Silva, Pulina Tissera, Suren Fonseka

Flankers: Adrian Hakel (vice captain), Dilan Rambukwella, Janusha Bopage.

Number Eight: Malintha Soysa.

Scrum Half:

Romello Perera.

Fly Half:

Kaveesha Mihiranga.

Centres: Priyan Perera (captain), Jananga Silva, Charith Umayanga.

Wingers: Mayura Sanjeewa, Madushan Fernando.

Full Back: Stefan Simms, Ashan Karunaratne.

Head Coach:

Dishantha Priyadarshana.

Assistant Coach: Tyronne Harrison.

Trainer: Kapila Munasinghe.

The fixtures:

May 2 v Trinity College at Pallekelle

May 10 v Kingswood at Havelock Park

May 15 v St. Anthony at Longden Place

May 23 v S. Thomas' at Mount Lavinia

June 6 v St. Peter's at Bambalapitiya

June 12 v Isipatana at Havelock Park

June 15 v Dharmaraja at Bogambara Stadium

June 27 v Mahanama at Longden Place

July 7 v Royal at Reid Avenue