St. Anthony's out to repeat last year's good performances

By Shamseer Jaleel

RUGBY: St. Anthony's College, Katugastota - a school better known for cricket, will be out to repeat last year's good performance when the inter-school rugby season kicks off later this month.

Though the school is famous for cricket, St. Anthonys have been producing some top class ruggerites in the last decade.

In the recent past they hav produced players in the calibre of Priyantha Ekanayake, Laxman Ekanayake, Lasantha Wijesuriya, Jude Pillai, Leroy Fonseka, Pradeep Liyanage, Malith Silva, Sameera Perera, Imran Bistamin are names that come to mind.

St. Anthony's will once again be coached by the very knowledgeable Viper Gunaratne (jnr).

Under Viper Gunaratne, some quality players were produced during his time. He will be putting his coaching skills the experience that he gained during his stay in Australia into practice and the Antonians are bound to gain much.

Besides Viper Gunaratne, tere will be Tikiri Disanayake who led the team in 2001, coaching the team this year.

The hard working Chandra Mahawatte will be the sports co-ordinator cum master-in-charge of the ruggerites this year.

Rugby Pool for 2008

Props: Prasad Weerakkody, Chanaka Peiris, Dinendra Dahanayake, Dnanjaya Doranegama and Krishantha Peiris.

Hookers: Chanaka De Silva, Hazan Haleem and Dilepa De Silva.

Second row: Dilaan Rnawanagedera, Mohamed Safraz and Prabath Chandrasekera.

Flankers: Sanka Rajaguru, Nirodha Sooriyabandara, Sanjaya Wijeratne, Chamara Silva, Jerome Stanley, Salika Amarasena, Asitha Perera, Dinuka Sirisena and Walter Bastian.

No 8: Arshan Uvais, Tharindu, Chanaka, Kasun Bandara Ekanayake.

Scrum halves: Immath Riyal and Dinesh Liyanage.

Centres: Amila Bandara, Amila Weligampola, Roiston David and Ravipriya Bandara.

Wingers: Chanaka Gunaratne (Captain), D. Wijeratne, Kavindu Dodanduwa, Mohamed Azharudeen and Mohamed Irshad.

Full back: Tharanga Bandara, Ashan Jayasekera and Lahiru Fernando.

Matches

26/4 S. Thomas' Colombo, 03/5 Kingswood Nittawela, 10/5 Isipathana Colombo, 17/5 St. Peter's Nittawela, 24/5 Trinity Nittawela, 31/5 Royal Colombo, 07/6 Vidyartha Nittawela, 21/6 Dharmaraja Nittawela.