Josephians redeem their lost prestige by emerging champions

Chris DHAMBARAGE

St. Joseph's College bounced back into recognition following last year's setback to emerge unbeaten champions in the Singer Inter School Under-20 Division Two League rugby tournament for the current season.

This has been a magnificent performance from the Josephians who were able to win all their matches by a convincing margin. They were somewhat demoralized when the team was demoted to the lower division after failing to make an impact last year.

However the boys from Darley Road were determined to prove their capabilities and went on to complete a memorable season at the end. No doubt they had a fresh outfit with only a couple of senior players who had survived from last year's team.

But the biggest advantage for St. Joseph's College was that they had the backing of a very senior and knowledgeable coach in the form of Sunanda Fernando who was able to transform this young side into a champion outfit.

Thirty three year old Fernando a former Isipatana and St. Peter's ruggerite got his act together well and has delivered the goods at the correct time. This was of course not the first time that Fernando had been involved with a champion schools rugby team.

Earlier he was instrumental in helping St. Peter's College to win the Singer Division One League Championship during the 2002 inter school rugby season. Since then he has had the privilege of working together with some of the top rugby coaches in the caliber of S. W. Chang, Hisham Abdeen and Sanath Martis.

Even then it was at the backdrop of some uncertainty that he took over the duties at St. Joseph's College while fully realizing the challenges and the tough task ahead of him. But he received a great amount of support from the school authorities especially from the Rugby Advisory Committee headed by its Chairman Kenneth de Zilva. Together with Dinuk de S. Wijeratne, Aravinda Gamage and Supun Perera they really put a lot of hard work towards achieving their ultimate goal.

They also had the backing of two former Sri Lanka stalwarts Anton Benedict and Lalith de Mel as consultants to the Advisory Committee along with the rest of the members comprising of Danelle Dias, Isuru Perera, Shehan Ranaweera, Prasanna Kuruppu, Wimal Perera and Chandana Kuruppu in addition to the support they received from the College Sports Council and Rector Rev. Fr. Sylvester Ranasinghe.

Even then there was plenty of doubt at the beginning of the season weather they could last the full distance because they were fielding altogether a completely new look side.

But thanks to the guidance and the inspiration they received from their coach Sunanda Fernando St. Joseph's College were able to produce the ingredients of success in a short period of time.

The feature in their performances this season was the amount of quality play that they produced on the field where all 15 players were equally brilliant while performing in their respective positions.

As a result Fernando was reluctant to pick any individual who was outstanding during the season because there were several playmakers in the team who performed their role to perfection.

But overall it was their great team work that really helped them to lift the title and to earn a well deserved promotion into the higher division from next season. In fact coach Fernando is already looking ahead of the 2011 inter school season where they will have the advantage of fielding almost the same team that played in this champion side. Coach Fernando stated now that they had accomplished their task their next goal will be to try and sustain their position in the coming years. All his tactics on the field certainly produced the desired results and his job was made even much easier with the players responding to the call magnificently.

The other feature that helped St. Joseph's College to stay above the rest was due to the fact that they adopted different game plans for each match and situations that surprised some of their opponents.

In another tactical move the Joes changed their key positions frequently during the match that prevented the opposition from settling and dominating the proceedings.

St. Joseph's College have also qualified to compete in the Milo President's Trophy knock out tournament and will take on their traditional rivals St. Peter's College in the quarterfinals.

Prop forward Jason Melder and full back cum place kicker Mayura Sanjeewa are two of their most outstanding players in the lineup along with skipper and scrum half Romelo Perera, number eight Malintha Soysa, fly half Kavishka Mihiranga and second row forward Suren Fonseka.