Thomians in battle to maintain prestige

Chris DHAMBARAGE

S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia with a young and new look outfit is hoping to build up the side and make an impact during the knock out tournament of the current inter school rugby season.

They have made a disappointing start to the new season and are currently placed at the bottom of the Singer Division One League Tournament points table following four successive defeats.

Last week they suffered another huge blow when they crashed to a shock 8-22 defeat at the hands of Thurstan College at the Sugathadasa Stadium. In the earlier matches they had lost to Wesley (12-18), Trinity (6-75) and Kingswood College Kandy (6-63).

The lack of experience coupled with a series of injuries to some of their key players have put the Thomians under tremendous pressure as they still keep on searching for their first victory in the tournament.

But more importantly they are struggling to survive in the Singer Division One tournament with the last two teams of the points table set to receive a demotion to the lower division.

S. Thomas' College are now faced with a huge task of redeeming some of their lost prestige and also to keep their reputation as one of the top rugby playing schools in the country.

The Thomians have always produced some fantastic teams in the recent past although their real success came in the year 2000 where they annexed the Singer Division One League championship under the captaincy of Gavin Jayasekera.

Since those memorable days they have made a number of unsuccessful attempts to produce that same form and have also come very close to achieving their goal.

In fact in the 2009 season they missed out a great opportunity where they had to be content with the runners up position in the league tournament.

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.

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 defeating Isipatana College once again in the final encounter. This year of course they have been at the receiving end for most of the time as they still look to form the right combination and the perfect rhythm to match the opposition.

However major injury scares have prevented them from playing their best rugby as they look to regroup and come out with an improved performance at least during the knock out tournament.

Last year S. Thomas' College had a decent league tournament where they recorded five victories against St. Anthony's, Trinity, Wesley, Dharmaraja College Kandy and Prince of Wales College Moratuwa. But their biggest moment came when they held a near invincible St. Peter's College to a fantastic 31 all draw in one of the most memorable inter school rugby matches played in the recent past. The Thomians of course could not make an impact in the Milo Schools knock out tournament as they were eliminated from the quarterfinals after going down to Isipatana College.