St. Joseph’s, Kingswood to kick-off schools’ rugby season

By shamil AMITH

After a two-year lapse, the Dialog Under 19 inter-school rugby league tournament will return today, with St. Joseph’s College taking on Kingswood College at 4:15 pm at Havelock Park. 

The schools’ rugby tournament came to a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the early part of 2020, before being cancelled in 2021, and its resumption will surely bring in supporters of the respective schools, hungry to witness their team in action. 

The Josephians will take the field under the leadership of Teran Karunanayake while Kingswood are led by Gihan Ranaweera, with both manning the Centre position.

The opening day of the tournament, conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools’ Rugby Football Association will be followed by two matches on Friday, with Royal College locking horns against St. Anthony’s College at Royal Complex ground in Reid Avenue and Isipathana College taking on Science College at Havelock Park.
Three matches are slotted to be played on Saturday (25) – two in Colombo and the other at Pallekele, Kandy – with St. Peter’s College meeting Dharmaraja College at Bambalaptiya, Wesley College facing Vidyartha College at Havelock Park and Trinity College in action against S. Thomas’ College at Trinity ground in Pallekele.
The 12 teams in action for the season, divided into two groups, comprise of Royal College, St. Joseph’s College, S. Thomas’ College, Trinity College, Kingswood College and St. Anthony’s College Katugastota in Group ‘A’ while St. Peter’s College, Wesley College, Isipathana College, Science College Mt Lavinia, Vidyartha College and Dharmaraja College are in Group ‘B’.

Meanwhile the SLSRFA will also conduct the Division 1 Segment ‘B’ tournament concurrently with 12 teams divided into two groups will be in action.

The Segment ‘B’ teams divided into two groups comprise of Zahira College Colombo, Maliyadeva Kurunegala, Lumbini MV Colombo, Prince of Wales, St. Aloysius College Galle and Mahanama College Colombo in Group ‘2A’ while the Group ‘2B’ includes DS Senanayake College, Sri Sumangala, Thurstan College, Ananda College, St. Sylvester’s College and St. Benedict’s College.