OLD THOMIANS' RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION

Rohitha Rajapaksa creates history - third brother to captain S. Thomas’ at rugby. (http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/04/27/spo02.asp)

By Shamseer Jaleel

RUGBY: Rohitha Rajapaksa, the youngest son of the sporty President of the country Mahinda Rajapaksa, will not only be the captain of the Thomian outfit this year, but also the young lad will create history when he writes his name in the record books at S. Thomas’. This will be the first time that three brothers have led the Thomian side in rugby.

Earlier his elder brother Namal (2005) and later Yoshitha (2006) led them with much pride. In another unique feature, all three of them have represented the National Youth side at the Junior Asiad. Unfortunately the two elder brothers gave up rugby after leaving school. Pack leader Rohitha Rajapaksa will have five other coloursmen in the side and will have Devaan Hallock as his deputy. The other seniors in the side are: Ramesh Perera, Shavin Kapuwatte, Heshan Gunaratne and Manjith Thamanagama.

The Thomians opened their Singer League Division 1-A tournament against St. Anthony’s whom they beat 14-10. Their next encounter will be against the Peterites for the Archibald Perera Memorial Trophy on May 3 at Mount Lavinia.

The Thomian team is coached by the former Kingswood fly-half Ronny Ibrahim who moulded the Kingswood outfit to be a champion side. He lost only two games, winning more than forty. Under the watchful eyes of Ronny and ably supported by Chandrishan Perera (Motivator) and Physical and Strength Trainer Mothilal Jayatilleke they are out to regain lost pride in their school rugby history.

Thomian Rugby Pool for 2008: Rohitha Rajapaksa (Capt), Devaan Hallock, Ramesh Perera, Shaveen Kapuwatte, Heshan Gunaratne, Manjith Thammanagama, Savith Kalupathirana, Niluk Wickramatilake, Janith Jayasuriya, Neomal Cabraal, Dinuka Ranasinghe, Jeewaka Hewavitharana, Yasas Subasinghe, Asanga Rodrigo, Tariq Jayasuriya, Sandeep Jayawardena, Asela Kohona, Roshanka Kodituwakku, Rajindra Gunasekara, Amrick Andrado, Ranshan Gomez, Mishel Algama, Manoharan Arjun, Avantha Jayasinghe, Ashan Adolphus, Jeremy Fernando, Anjula de Silva, I. B. H. Pilapitiya, Vivienne Rudra, Shehan Thahir and Ramindra Deshapriya. Remaining fixtures for 2008: 3 May vs St. Peters in Colombo, 9 May vs Dharmaraja in Kandy, 17 May vs Trinity in Kandy, 24 May vs Kingswood in Colombo, 31 May vs Isipathana in Colombo, 7 June vs Vidyartha in Colombo, 14 June vs St. Joseph’s in Colombo and 21 June vs Royal in Colombo.

S. Thomas' led by Number 8 Rohitha Rajapakse started off their 2008 Singer inter-school rugby league season campaign in the way they were looking forward with a morale boosting 14 points to 10 win over St Anthony's Katugastota in their first match played at Mt Lavinia yesterday having held on to a slender 7-5 lead at half time.

The closely contested game saw the Thomians make up their score through two goals one each in the two sessions of play while the Antonians made up their score from two tries also in the same pattern. It was the Thomians who dominated the first half and the Antonians in the second half. But the Antonians messed up some of the scoring opportunities that came their way in this session and had to blame themselves of throwing away their chances of winning the game.

This match was played for the Rev. Fr. Angelo Rossati trophy which the Thomians regained it after a lapse of three years. In fact it was the Antonians who drew first blood in the 8th minute when Number 8 Imad Reyal went through for a superb push over try. But a few minutes later the Thomians struck back through a try from prop forward Janik Jayasuriya with winger Hehsan Gunaratne adding the extra points to give them the lead. The two sides changed over with no more scoring being done in this half.

The Thomians enjoying their home ground support began attacking and succeeded in penetrating their opponents’ backyard. Then the Thomians spearheaded by skipper and Number 8 Rohitha Rajapakse who took the opportunity of going over for a try following a series of line outs and five metre area. Heshan Gunaratne made no mistake of the conversion this time too.

From here onwards the Antonians began making sporadic moves but they were unlucky when one of the tries scored under the posts was disallowed by referee Pradeep Fernando. But they made amends a few minutes later when centre Amila Weligampola went over for another unconverted try. The grassing of the conversions proved costly for the Antonians unlike for the Thomians which turned out to be match winning ones at the end.

Yesterday it was observed that a parent of a player behaving in an unruly manner accusing the referee on poor judgments. However it would be advisable if incidents of this nature are nipped in the bud as these may lead up incidents of the nature of where a referee was manhandled at a schools match during the last season.