Trinity and Kingswood battle it out for Singer Under 20 league

Jaleel reporting from Kandy

What a year of schools rugby this year in 2008. The fate of the league changed waves from the kick off onwards. St. Peter’s College who were also one of the strong contenders and defending champions for the last two years.

But there were two teams who were not only in peak at the inception but maintained their stay in the top right through the season.

Those two sides (Trinity and Kingswood) from the Hill capital will battle it out for the Singer League today at Bogambara with the kick off at 4.30 p.m.

For record purposes these two are the first two schools to start rugby in the Island way back in 1906. Kingswood was the school which introduced rugby to Sri Lanka. The initial game ended in a 6 a piece draw where even school masters were part of the playing XV.

Kingswoodians are led by Gayan Rathnage this year. They started the season with a tough opener against Royal. They went on to win 13-7.

They were only beaten by the defending champions St. Peter’s 15-7. They beat Vidyartha 67-0 Dharmaraja 26-9, St Thomas 29-7, St. Anthony’s 19-12 and Isipatana 6-3. On the other hand Trinity led by Milinda Gunawardena, kicked off the season with a warm up against St. Sylvester’s which they won 60 points to nothing. They continued their winning streak by beating Isipathana 29-10, Vidyartha 60-9, St. Thomas 15-10, St. Anthony’s 25-24, Dharmnaraja 25-14 and Royal 24-12. They were only beaten by St. Peter’s 15-10.

Comparing both sides their strength relies on their respective three quarters. Trinity hold a slight edge on forwards play where Pradeep Basnayake has done a grand job with the boys. But likely the battle will be between Trinity Scrum Half Adeeb Hameed and Kingswoodian Roshan Weeraratne, where both are top class players and none of them will easily give up for the other.

Hats off to the coaches of both sides. Trinity in being coached by Anil Jayasinghe (Three quarters) and Pradeep Basnayake (Forwards) while the Randles Hill school is coached by Nilufer Ibrahim. Nilufer has produced two champion sides in his first two years as a coach. He produced a champion Rajans side last year where they won the “B” division and got promoted to the top division this year.

If the Trinity outfit wins then it will be a great achievement since they came in to the top division in 2007 after they stayed out from the League for about 4-5 years. Kingswoodians have won the League in 2004 and 2005. The last 2 years they have ended as Runner-up to the strong Peterite outfit. What ever the final result it is going to be the Kandy crowd who will be happy since the Singer League is returning back to the Hill Capital after lapse of two years.

The game will be controlled by former Anandian Asela De Silva who is on a short vacation from Australia.