Royal - Thomian Y-FM Schools Rugby

Shamsser JALEEL

RUGBY: A real big match - Royal vs S. Thomas' will open the All-Island Inter-school Rugby season on April 24 at S. Thomas' College grounds at Mount Lavinia. This game will be for the Michael Gunaratne Trophy.

This inter-school under 20 rugby season is sponsored by Y-FM as Singer, Sri Lanka will be out of action as they have withdrawn their sponsorship.

Besides the Royal vs S. Thomas' match there is another match on April 24 as St. Peter's take on Isipathana at Bambalapitiya.

Then on April 25 Kingswood take on Mahanama at Bogambara Stadium in Kandy and on the same day, Trinity College will play against St. Joseph's at Pallekelle.

The Trinity `Lions' will be led by their dashing winger Vishwajith Wijesinghe with Scrum Half Adeeb Hamid being the deputy of the side. Both the skipper and deputy are proud winners of the coveted `Lion' in rugby for their alma-mater last year. This is the highest award given to any Trinitian.

The side will be blessed with some outstanding players in the calibre of Idrish Omar, Damith Dissanayake, Kennon Armstrong and Shenon Armstrong.

Trinity came out for the first time earlier this week game against their old boys at Havelock Park. The side will be once more coached by Trinity `Lion' and double International Pradeep Basnayake and Anil Jayasinghe better known for his refereeing.

The Trinitians have already shown their mark when they became runners-up at the recently concluded Schools Rugby Sevens in Colombo. Trinity will play their `Bradby Shield' 1st leg game against Royal College on 30 May and the Second Leg in Colombo two weeks later.

The defending champions Kingswood College - the first school to take to Rugby, will lock horns with Mahanama debut makers in top division along with St. Joseph's, Kingswood will meet Mahanama in Kandy on April 25 -Kingswood will be led by National Youth player Roshan Weeraratne who will operate from the base of the scrum.