Ruggerites of Bandaranayake having a great season

Anushka WITHANAGE

The first XV team of Bandaranayake College Gampaha, which took to rugby football in 1999, has made vast strides in this sport. Within four years, their ruggerites did their school proud by becoming runners-up in All-Island division II Tier A league tournament in 2003 and were promoted to division one.

The school added to its laurels when they emerged Bowl champions in the Tier 'A' All-Island under-20 sevens tournament Bowl champions in 2006 and Tier 'A' All-Island Under-18 Team Membership Tournament the same year, and were runners-up in the division II Tier 'B' League Tournament.

These early successes saw Bandaranayake College scrum down with greater determination at making the mark. Competing in division II Tier 'A' this year they defeated Talduwa Buddhist School 32-0, St. Sebastian's Kandana 8-7, Moratu M.V. 25-7, Dharmapala Pannipitiya 17-10 and Asoka Vidyalaya Colombo 29-14 to remain unbeaten so far.

Their remaining fixtures are against Hindu college, Bambalapitiya, Siri Piyarathana Vidyalaya and Lalith Athulathmudali Vidyalaya.

The team is captained by P.S.U. Artygalle and his deputy is R.A.C.M. Jayasekera. The team is coached by Sasidu Rajapaksa, a senior member of the 2003 team, and master-in-charge is H. N. Niroshan, all who have contributed their mite in knitting successive teams.