Thomian rugby on the rise

Thushan Jayasuriya

A team which is fast recapturing its past glory in rugby is S.Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia. The lads from Mount Lavinia came up with a stupendous performance to score a stunning 29 - 15 win over Trinity College Kandy to regain the Canon R.S. de Saram Shield having started the season with three successive wins over Prince of Wales (62 - 0), C.W.W.Kannangara Vidyalaya (46-8) and St.Sylvester's College Kandy (45 - 9).

The man who has brought about this remarkable change in their fortunes is Australian coach Grant Dwyer with the assistance of former Thomian skipper and Sri Lanka youth skipper Jeevan Gunatilleke and ex-Sri Lanka Prop Forward Dhanushka Boteju who have taken great pains to mould them into a formidable outfit.

Thomian skipper Devin Jayasinghe gave a marvellous display by contributing 19 points with five penalties and two conversions. He also had the Trinity defence in disarray with his probing runs while his kicks to touch gained them territorial advantage . He was well supported by Centre H.R.R.Senanayake (who scored a brilliant try in the last few minutes), K.G.Muththetuwegama, D.A.Peiris and Reza Ibrahim as the Thomians reigned supreme on the field.

Their intention is to not only gain promotion to the ‘A’ division of the segment one Singer League next year by emerging champions of the ‘B’ division but also to win their three remaining traditional games against St.Peter's for the Archieball Perera trophy, St.Joseph's for the Lady Jayatilleke shield and Royal for the Michael Gunaratne trophy.

The lads from Mount Lavinia who have a proud rugby history were demoted to the ‘B’ division after a disastrous rugby season in 2011 where they virtually lost every match after having two years earlier(2009) emerged runners-up of the Singer ‘A’ division league to Royal and won the Milo Knockout trophy with a thrilling win over Isipatana in the final. But the golden era of Thomian rugby was form 1989 to 1991 where they won 41 matches in a row under the guidance of that dedicated coach Quentin Israel the lads from Mount Lavinia won the R.S.de Saram Shield by beating Trinity 16 - 3 in 1989, 18 - 6 (1990) and 13 - 3 in 1991.They also bagged the Michael Gunaratne trophy by overcoming Royal 3 - 0 in 1989, 13 - nil in 1990 and 22 - 4 in 1991 and also took the Archieball Perera memorial trophy and Lady Jayatilleke Shield in all three years by beating St.Peter's and St.Joseph's respectively.

In 1989, led by Rizvi Shuayb they clinched the Premadasa trophy by beating Isipatana by 15 - 3 in the final. In the following year they were awarded the Premadasa trophy after losing 4 - 10 to Isipatana in the final. But Isipatana were found guilty of fielding of an overage player. while in the following year 1991, thomians won the Premadasa trophy for the third successive year by cvercoming Ananda 15 - 9 in the final.

The Thomians who began playing rugby in the early 1950s has produced many outstanding ruggerites who have donned the Sri Lanka jersey with distinction. Dicky Jayatilleke, Frankie David, Larry Schokman, Tony Sirimanne, Junie Cader, Bumpy Jayasekara, P.L.Munasinghe, Micheal Jayasekara, Kolitha Gunatilleke, Chaminda Rupasinghe, Christopher Jordasche, Roshan Perera, Savantha de Saram, Asanga Seneviratne and Harin C Perera.

In recent years S.Thomas’ has produced top national players of the calibre of Sri Lanka Skipper Yoshitha Rajapaksa who led the country to victory in the Asian Five Nations tournament, Namal Rajapaksa, Anuruddha Wilwara and Ashen Karthelis.