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Friday, 30 April 2010

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Thomians - packed with senior players

Chris DHAMBARAGE

S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia with ten coloursmen and several other senior players in their ranks are determined to make their presence felt and clinch the league title during the current inter- school rugby season.

Rajindra Gunasekera (captain)

They have already got off to a flying start and have cleared their first hurdle while overcoming Wesley College by 29 points to five points in their opening match of the Singer Under-20 Division One League tournament.

It has been quite some time that the Thomians took the league title and this year they seem to have the potential and the ingredients to make the full distance and complete the season with an unbeaten record.

In fact it was exactly ten years ago in the year 2000 that S. Thomas’ College last won the league title under the captaincy of Gavin Jayasekera. Last year they had to be content with the runners up position in the league.

Even then this was a tremendous performance especially after they had lost the opening match of the tournament against the traditional rivals Royal College 33-37 on their home grounds at Mount Lavinia.

However the Thomians bounced back magnificently and proved their class and superiority by pulling off a morale boosting 28-12 win against the formidable Isipatana outfit.

Thereafter they went from strength to strength and recorded impressive victories against Trinity College Kandy (26-17), St. Joseph’s College (38-13) and St. Peter’s College (36-3) respectively.

The S. Thomas College Rugby Pool for 2010. Pictures by Mahinda Vithanachchi

They were able to carry that form into the latter stages of the season and went on to win the President’s Trophy knock out title after a lapse of 15 years while defeating Isipatana College once again in the final encounter. They have started the new season with a mission and they would certainly like to improve as the season progresses.

In fact next week they will be up against Isipatana College followed by the clash against the arch rivals Trinity College Kandy. The Thomians are certainly looking forward to these two tough matches.

This time they have retained the services of 17 players out of their squad of 22 from last year including former captain and dynamic fly half Shavin Kapuwatte who had the credit of touring India with the Sri Lanka team last year.

This year of course Kapuwatte has shifted positions and has moved into the centres position while giving him the responsibility of creating more opening and scoring opportunities. The regular fly half this year will be another experienced player Kishan Wickremasinghe who is also a reliable place kicker.

S. Thomas’ College will be captained by number eight Rajindra Gunasekera who is another senior player and who had a successful season last year. He will join Sudarshan Muthuthantri and Devin Illeppeli in the vital third row.

The Thomian front row is also packed with experience with Malindra Ching and Sanjeewa Ahangama as the regular prop forwards and Anjula de Silva as the number one hooker. They will be supported by the two hard working second row forwards Ishendra Pilapitiya and Dinuk de Silva.

Meanwhile Avendra Dharmadasa will operate from the base of the scrum with Kishan Wickremasinghe as the fly half. In the wings they will have the services of Danindu Silva and Vivian Rudra with Jeromy Fernando as the full back.