The glamour boys of schools rugby Isipathana College
will start as the favourites to clinch the coveted
President’s Trophy when the annual Milo Schools
Under-20 Knockout Rugby tournament gets underway at
the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue next Sunday.
The quarterfinals will be worked off on September 18
and 19 with the semi-finals scheduled for September
23 and 24. The final will be played on September 30.
With the league champions Royal College opting out
from this year’s tournament the cynosure of all eyes
will be on Isipathana College seeded number one for
the quarterfinals.
Isipathana College will receive a bye into the
semi-finals as only seven teams have confirmed their
participation in this event. St. Joseph’s, St.
Anthony’s, Wesley and S. Thomas’ are the other teams
who have made themselves unavailable for this
tournament.
Isipathana of course narrowly missed out the
Singer Inter-School Division One League title
emerging runners-up having recorded ten victories
beating, St. Anthony’s (31-3), Dharmaraja (37-15),
Science College (23-17), St. Joseph’s (29-23),
Wesley (46-3), S. Thomas’ (77-3), Trinity (23-18),
St. Peter’s (42-29), Kingswood (10-5) and
traditional rivals Thurstan (70-6).
Isipathana’s only setback this year was their close
10-11 defeat at the hands of the ultimate league
champions Royal College. Now, after a break of more
than one month they will be back on the field
determined to make amends and conclude this season
on a high note.
In fact, Isipathana have always performed well in
the knockout tournaments because they seem to play
their best rugby during the latter stages of the
season. They were the runners-up for three
successive years in 2007, 2008 and 2009
respectively.
In this year’s league tournament they figured in
some close encounters and as a result they failed to
obtain the extra bonus points which certainly turned
out to be crucial at the end.
But the knockout tournament has helped Isipathana
College produce their best in the recent past and
this time too they will be hoping that they could
come out with an exceptional performance to win the
President’s Trophy.
Isipatana’s main rivals this time will be Trinity
College Kandy and St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya
who finished third and fourth respectively in the
league points table.
In fact both Trinity and St. Peter’s will have a
point to prove when the tournament begins having
experienced mixed fortunes during the league
championship.
The Trinitians of course made a wonderful start to
the season when they annihilated S. Thomas’ College
Mount Lavinia by 75 points to 6 points in a
completely one-sided contest.
They made steady progress from there onwards and
went on to beat St. Anthony’s (10-3), Kingswood
(41-0), St. Joseph’s (38-10), Wesley (48-13), St.
Peter’s (34-10), Thurstan (41-3) and Dharmaraja.
But more than their performances in the league
tournament Trinity College will be quite satisfied
with the manner they regained the prestigious
‘Bradby Shield’ against their traditional rivals
Royal College.
In Kandy they went down fighting in the first leg
25-33 before staging a remarkable comeback to take
the return fixture by a record margin of 40-5 at the
Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue.
In between Trinity College also went down by a
five-point margin (18-23) against their arch rivals
Isipathana College. Overall it has been a mixed bag
for Trinity College who will be hoping to make a
huge impact in the President’s Trophy Knockout
Tournament.
Meanwhile St. Peter’s College will be hoping for
an improved performance when they begin their
campaign for the President’s Trophy. The former
champions completely fell apart during the latter
stages of the league tournament following a couple
of shock defeats.
The Peterites failed to maintain the same momentum
as they went down badly in some of their key matches
against Trinity ((10-34), Isipathana (29-42), Royal
(41-50) and Kingswood (13-17).
Until then St. Peter’s College looked in a good
frame of mind as they made a positive start to the
season in their attempt to retain the league title
for the second successive year.
They certainly enjoyed the early part of the season
after having pulled off some big victories against
Science College (48-7), Thurstan (61-6), Dharmaraja
(54-5), Wesley (62-7), St. Anthony’s (42-10), St.
Joseph’s (23-17) and S. Thomas’ (59-7).
No doubt St. Peter’s College is packed with a
number of outstanding players and a couple of
national youth caps but they will need to realise
that individual brilliance alone will not help their
cause and should be able to concentrate on a
combined team effort.
But the team which is most likely to turn things
around will be Science Colleg, Mount Lavinia who has
got another great opportunity to leave their mark
before the conclusion of the current inter-school
rugby season.
In fact Science College emerged as the most
unpredictable team in the league tournament where
they had the distinction of overcoming a couple of
fancied teams including a historic 12-11 triumph
against Trinity College.
They never looked back from there and went on to
beat Kingswood (20-17), Thurstan (30-15), Wesley
(17-5) and S. Thomas’ (31-0) before going down
fighting against the ultimate league champions Royal
by a three-point margin (15-18),
Their rise to the top division has been purely
due to hard work and commitment where they have
concentrated a lot on the basics and finer points
under the guidance of Coach Mothilal Jayatilleke.
A vital factor in their success this season has been
the fitness level of the players having trained hard
to absorb the pressure from the opposition
especially during the latter stages of the game.
This was a key area for their success in both
matches against Trinity College and Kingswood
College where Science College were able to keep
their cool and come out victorious despite the huge
challenge from the opposition.
The President’s trophy quarterfinal draw
September 18: Isipathana bye
Kingswood v Science
September 19: St. Peter’s v Dharmaraja
Trinity v Thurstan
September 23: 1st semifinal
September 24: 2nd semifinal
September 30: Final
Sunday 11th September, 2011 - The Nation
