St. Sylvester's - boxing champs then, now a force in Rugby Football

by Hafiz Marikar

St. Sylvester's College a school which was better known in boxing, has turned out to be a striking force in rugby circles. St. Sylvester's will certainly give the top rung schools a torrid time, with the dawn of the season in March. This year they are celebrating their seventy fifth year, and the Old Boys have promised to give their best, the President of OBA J.G. Thilakasri is bound to give his best.

Speaking of the strides the school has made with limited facilities, one can regard the progress as amazing. Battling many hardships, the lads from the city of Kandy have been hampered to a great extend by the unavailability of proper grounds for the game. Players, however, have no option but to practise on the pint size grounds at Asgiriya which has hardly got the necessary requirements to play a full contact game. And to top it all, the grounds had no goal post, and also grass is less and a ball on the ground can be fatal.

However, the ruggerites from this school have survived the worst and have built a reputation of having the ability to undo even the toughest of teams which get in their way. The boys are determined.

St. Sylvester's play in the Division I Segment 2A, with school like Prince of Wales College, Ananda College, Thurstan College, Lalith Athulathmudali College and St. Benedict's College.

The first game for St. Sylverster's is against Ananda College, but their key game with Vidyartha College their rivals in 2009 where they played for the D.J.N. Seneviratne Memorial Trophy, however was not played after that year, however with the 75th year celebrations, St. Sylvester's should revive that game.

St. Sylvester's College was the third school in Kandy to play rugger. They started in 1954 with famous Trinitian Bobby Jayaweera as the coach. In 1955 too, they played. Their matches were against Trinity College and St. Peter's College, St. Sylvester's had to give up due to poor facilities, the main problem they had was no grounds for practices.

Rugby was re-introduced to the school in 1982 by then principal late Bertie Nillegoda. Malcom Marshal was the first captain. He later played for Sri Lanka Navy and Defence Services.

Some of the leading players - Nihal Pelpola played for Kandy Sports Club, Tony Direckez played for CR and FC, Gerad David he too played for Sri Lanka Air Force, Cyril Aluwihare played for over a decade as a winger for Kandy Sports Club, Sarath Basnayake played for Kandy Sports Club and Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Presidents XV, he also captained the Police team to win the Clifford Cup, and became the President of SLRFU and Sri Lanka Referees Society, Hector Galage played for Kandy Lake Club, Havelock Sports Club, Kandy Sports Club and Up-Country, Lucky Peries threw his lot with Kandy Sports Club and Sri Lanka Police, Hafiz Marikar turned out to be a stalwart for Kandy Sports Club, Wasantha Rathnayale played for CR and FC, Anton Fernando for Kandy Sports Club, Jeffry Jamilon played for Sri Lanka Navy.

After St. Sylvester's re-introduced the game to the school in 1982, some of the top players turned out to be S.A. Niyandagala, Manjula Pathirana, N.Y. Gunasekara, R.M. Janaka, M. Basnayake, N. Ratnayake, M.F. Imthikaf, R. Kumar, R. Punsara, A.D. Weerakoon, N.D. Atharagalla, J.B. Dodnawella, Anura Rankothge, J.C. Dissanayake, F.K. Rabel, S.A. Ramanayake, B. Aravindan, M.M. Akram, K.D. Mendis, I.B. Kapukotuwa, C.L. Jayatissa, L.B. Kapukotuwa and R.S. Bandara.

Last year, St. Sylvester's had a average season. This year, the team is packed with ten of the last season's players and are led by No. 8 forward Pruthuwi Attanayake who is capable of doing a good job as the leader. He is a tireless player and a fine line out specialist and also good in cover defence. The vice-captain is flank forward Tiwanka Weligampola - another fine third row forward.

The players who are expected to play this season are: Front-row: A. Chaminda, Jalik Jain and Dilanka Sanakelum.

The second row will be: M. Prasanna and Isuru Lakshan Bandara. They possess a formidable third-row: the experience duo Yasa Widarshan and Nipuna Jayaweera will be the two flankers both are fierce tacklers. Skipper Prutuwi Attanayake will occupy the No. 8 berth.

Third-year player Kawinda Withanagamage will once again operate from the base of the scrum. Yasa Widarshan is likely to occupy the fly half's berth, the centers will be Suraj Bandara and Sheman Perira, the wings will be manned by two of the fastest runners in the team - Randika Tiwanka and Lahiru Udayanga. The last line of defence will be manned by Lahiru Kaushalya who has the ability to join the line to form the overlap.

This year, Sylvestrians are fortunate luck to get one of their old boys - Anura Rankothge as the coach. He was earlier the Trinity College junior coach. He is receiving all the encouragement from the Principal T.R.S. Meetiyagoda and MIC A.K.B. Dodanwella who is the Assistant Principal in charge of sports.