Inthi Marikar takes over Trinity Rugby as Interim Coach

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Old Trinitians Rugby Football Interim Committee, known as Rugby Scrummage headed by former Trinity prop forward Siva Sivasubramaniam, selected Inthi Marikar as Trinity College, Kandy’s Interim Coach for the remainder of the rugby season.

Their former Head Coach, Lote Raiakbulla, resigned after their game against Wesley College. He left for England for three months. He will return to Sri Lanka in October this year to take over CH&FC for the 2018/2019 rugby season.

Marikar, who was with Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) as their High-Performance Rugby Director for the last three years, will return to Kandy where he learnt his basics. Marikar represented Sri Lanka at the age of 19, playing for the senior Sevens outfit. 

He played for Trinity College under Tyrelle Rajapakse in 1987, with the side emerging the league and knockout champions, winning all their games and allowing only a single try to be scored by Isipathana against them that year. Marikar represented CR&FC and Kandy at the club level while representing Sri Lanka in both forms of the game. He coached the Sri Lanka Sevens unit at the Asian Sevens plus serving as Head Coach for Sri Lanka Air Force and CR&FC.

As the High Performance Rugby Director at Sri Lanka Rugby, he was the driving force behind the implementation of the Sevens structure in the system while focusing on the juniors as well throughout the year which took Sri Lanka Rugby to a different level on the Sevens rugby circuit. With his guidance, Sri Lanka won the Asian Sevens at the Under 18 and Under 20 level.

Marikar will need to see Trinity through in their last league game against Zahira College in order for them to secure a spot in the Milo knockout rugby competition while he will also take charge of Trinity at next month’s Schools Sevens.