Joes out to regain their past glory

Chris DHAMBARAGE

St. Joseph's College with ten senior coloursmen and several other talented players in their ranks are hoping to re-establish themselves and make their presence felt in the current inter-school rugby season.

They have made it to the Premier Division of the Singer Under 19 League tournament after some real hard work last year and now they are determined to consolidate their position with a solid performance.

In fact they emerged Division Two unbeaten champions last year under the leadership of scrum half Romelo Perera and are looking forward towards extending their dominance against some of the more fancied teams this season.

They have made a positive start to their new campaign and have given a good account of themselves in the two outings they have performed so far in the tournament.

St. Joseph's College provided some real anxious moments to their opponents Royal College before going down fighting 31-38 in a close encounter.

The most significant feature in this effort was that the Joes had the satisfaction of scoring more tries than their opponents despite ending in the losing side.

However they bounced back immediately and followed it up with an impressive 28-24 triumph over Science College. The Josephians once again showed a great amount of determination as they came from behind to turn the game in their favour.

This kind of performance has certainly put St. Joseph's College on the right path towards achieving their goals as they will face even tough opponents during the rest of the season.

In fact their next challenge will be against the formidable Wesley outfit followed by the matches against Trinity, Isipatana, Kingswood, St. Peter's, Thurstan, Dharmaraja, St. Anthony's and S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia.

St. Joseph's College have recorded some memorable victories in the rugby scene but their historic 27-24 win against Trinity College in Kandy two years ago was easily their best effort in the recent past.

In the same season they went on to beat St. Anthony's College by 27 points to 15 points while further underlining their talent and potential. But St. Joseph's College could not sustain their position in the top league and were demoted into the 'B' division last year.

They however grabbed the opportunity to regroup themselves under tremendous pressure and eventually went on to clinch the Division Two League title with an unbeaten record.

The manner in which they went about their task was simply outstanding because they swept aside all opponents with minimum effort while even resting some of their senior players on a couple of outings.

They crossed the fifty point mark on two occasions against Lumbini MV (73-10) and Zahira College (79-10) respectively. Some of their other big victories were against Thurstan College (47-19), Vidyartha College Kandy (49-18), Mahanama MV (45-0) and C. W. W. Kannangara MMV, Borella (42-6).

St. Joseph's College also had the better of St. Benedict's (36-7), Science College (34-13) and Ananda College (34-6). Their only setback last year was when they lost the two friendly games against S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and the Big Match against the traditional rivals St. Peter's College.

St. Joseph's College First XV Rugby Pool for 2011:

Prop forwards: Yohan Keyser, Dushan Dep, Nuwan Wanniarachchi

Hooker: Darren Hakel

Second row forwards: Praveen Nivantha, Malshan Salgado, Suchinthra Udumalagala

Flankers: Chirath Peiris, Darren Dharmadasa, Sashin Sudaraka

Number eight: Malintha Zoysa (captain)

Scrum half: Piyum Jayasinghe, Kasun Sameera

Fly half: Godfrey White

Centres: Chamod Umeshanka, Kaveesha Mihiranga, Shehan Bopearachchi

Wingers: Dhanushka Jayasekera, Vishmitha Peiris, Steve Joseph

Full back: Dileep Rehan

Coaches: Sunanda Fernando and Bilal Yousuf

Physio: Bhanaka Fernando, Dr. Dushantha Wijesinghe

Master in charge and Sports Coordinator: Prashantha Ranaweera

Prefect of Games: Rev. Fr. Samith Rangana