The school that introduced rugby football to Sri Lanka in 1906, Kingswood College, has probably had a long wait since 2008 for a League win. It was Gayan Rathnage who led the outfit in 2008 for their last league win for the Randles Hills outfit almost 15 years ago, which is too much of an asking for a school that produced such a quality lot not only playing for their school but also for the clubs and the country in the end.

This year’s outfit is led by scrumhalf Imanka Ishara, while No. 8 and footballer Inoon Ihshan will be his deputy. They have some solid senior players in the likes of Randhila Ranaweera, Afthab Asmy, Tharindu Ishara, and Pramod Fernando.

Kingswood probably had the best years of rugby during the early 2000s, which produced some outstanding players: both Nalaka Weerakody and Nilfer Ibrahim during the late 90s, while in the early 2000s, Gayan Weeraratne, Roshan Weeraratne, Mohamed Jabbar, Fazil Marija, Jeewa Galgamuwa, and Chamara Vithanage are a few of them who went on to represent the national outfit. Marija stands out as a legend produced by the Kingswoodians for the country.

Kingswood are coached by old boy Malith Hettiarachchi, who led the outfit in 2001 to a knockout win and later went on to play for Kandy SC and CR & FC. He represented the national outfit from 2002 to 2009. Also, notably, he was one of the two to represent the Sri Lanka Youth outfit at the Youth Rugby World Cup from Kandy Schools, which took place in Chile in 2001. He has been with Kingswood for the last three years.

He will have former Kingswoodian Jabbar as his three-quarter coach. The sevens specialist, Jabbar, captained Kingswood in 2004, and after leaving school, he played for Kandy SC as a wing three-quarter for seven years. He also represented the national outfit both in the shorter and longer versions of the game from 2007 to 2011.

Ronny Ibrahim will be the team’s consultant, with Chulaka Abeysinghe as the rugby manager and Anuja Mallawarachchi as the trainer. (Text: Shamseer Jaleel / Pix: Kushan Pathiraja)