Thomians regain de Saram Shield after three years

by Ranjan Anandappa

Rugby: S.Thomas' Mount Lavinia began the rugby season in style when they outplayed the much fancied Trinity outfit by 19 points (two tries, one drop goal and two penalties) to 15 (Three tries) in their school rugger match played at Longden Place yesterday.

The win enabled them to regain the Canon R. S. de Saram Shield after three years. The Thomians last won the shield under the leadership of Ashen Karthelis the present Sri Lanka flanker.

Trinity started off impressively and seemed to dominate proceedings with their brand of rugby. Thomians opened scoring in the tenth minute of the game when their full back M.Thammanagama put over an easy penalty. But Trinity struck back four minutes later when centre Vennon Armstrong pierced the Thomian defence to score an unconverted try. Trinity had the better of exchanges in the first half.

The Kandy school stretched the lead further through a try by fly half Kenneth Jacob which also went unconverted. Just before lemons the Thomians came back stroming when fly half Sanka de Livera Tennekoon broke off and covered good ground to touch down under the post with Thammanagama adding the extra points with an easy conversion. At half time the scores read 10-all.

On resumption Thomian who did not impress in the first half suddenly found their fluency. They drove into rucks and mauls and were virtually based in Trinity territory. The Trinitians trying to break off the shackles made mistakes.

The Thomians went on to consolidate their position further with full back Thammanagama firing over three penalties.

During the dying stages of the match Trinity came back into the Thomian territory and scored off a push over try by prop Sathya Ranatunga which went unconverted.

Orville Fernando refereed.