Central Province Schools Sevens 2021 Schools Sevens kicks off in Pallekele today

By Shamzeer Jaleel reporting from Kandy

The Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SSRFA) conducted Under-19 Inter-Schools Rugby Sevens 2021 for the Central Province (CP) schools will take place today (27 December) at the Trinity College Rugby Stadium at Pallekele. The return of rugby to the Central Hills comes almost 21 months after the last school game played between Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College at Nittawela back in March 2020.

The kick-off of the tournament will be at 9 a.m. with a game between Trinity and Sri Rahula College, Katugastota. Other participating teams are Kingswood, Dharmaraja, Sylvester’s, Vidyartha, Sri Sumangala, and the Antonians. 
Dinal Ekanayake will lead the Kingswood outfit with one of their old boys and veteran in the coaching field, Ananda Kasturiarachchi, heading the coaching unit. 

Tehan Karunanayake is set to lead Trinity College, with former Trinity Rugby “Lion”, Havies, and national player, Kavinda Jayasena, heading the coaching department, with another old boy, Thushitha de Silva, supporting him.
Sylvester’s College outfit is led by Avishka Chandrathilake and coached by A. Dharmapala. The Rajans’ outfit will be led by Saumya Wijesiri for this sevens event as their tipped-to-lead player, Thewinda Saparamadu, has already been hired to play for the Royal rugby outfit. The team will be coached by Lasintha de Costa. Sumangala is led by Manusha Kavinda, with Dinesh Gamage heading the coaching role. Rahula is captained by Shenal Silva, with Roshan Ratnayake as the head coach.

The Antonians are led by Maliksha Perera, with former Vidyartha, Navy SC, and national player, Sumedha Malawena heading the coaching unit. Vidyartha is led by Chilantha Kaluarachchi and coached by Dhanushka Pushpakumara.

The games are expected to be played behind closed doors due to the current health conditions and the pandemic around the globe, and the finals of each segment are to be played after 1 pm.