Royal and St Peter’s battle for B C Anghie Memorial Trophy

Blockbuster encounter between Royal and St Peters

By Shamseer Jaleel

This will be the pick of the week 1 games but it’s too early for an encounter of this nature when Royal College and St. Peter’s College two possible contenders for the League title this year will lock horns in their Dialog Rugby League Under 20 encounter at Bambalapitiya today (17 June) 

Kick-off is scheduled at 4 p.m.

This encounter will be played for the B.C. Anghie Memorial Trophy. This is the longest running schools rugby event after the initial one was played in 1932. Royal won the initial game.

Royal is led by Randul Senanayake and coached by Dushantha Lewke while Peterites are led by Ashen Madugasge and coached by Sanath Martis.

In 2013 a trophy as introduced to this traditional encounter. B. C. Anghie Cup was named in memory of late B.C. Anghie who was a master at both St Peter’s and Royal. This was donated by his son Anthony Anghie who played for Royal in 1948/49.

This will be the 76th encounter between the two schools with former Rector of St. Peter’s, Rev Fr Trevor Martin being the Chief Guest. 

Referee will be Ishanka Abeykoon

 Close encounter expected between Wesley and Thomians

A close encounter is expected when Wesley College and S’ Thomas College lock horns at Mount Lavinia today. This will be their first match of the season for both the schools in the Dialog Rugby League 2023.

Wesley will be led by Kaveesh Jayman and well supported by the seniors such as Naheel Jayah, Sabith Musheen, Sandul Gamanpilla, Suhaib Nizam, Shamry Fayeek and Darrian de Zilva in their double blues outfit. They are coached by Henry Terrance.

Meanwhile Thomians will be led by Viyaan de Silva with Malith Perera, Shanal Fernando and Yehan Bulathsinhalage to add more power to the Mount Lavinia outfit. Thomians are coached by mastermind, Shamly Nawas. 

Both sides possess a well-balanced outfit and a good game of rugby is expected with the home team having slight edge playing at Mount Lavinia. 

Referee will be Praneeth Weranga.

 Trinity holds the edge against Rajans

Both Trinity and Rajans will be out for their first game when they meet each other at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy today.

Trinity will be led by Attaab Manzil one of the best players around this season and his deputy will be Chamendra Dhanapala another cracking forward in the outfit. They have some top class players such as Harith Samaraweera, Rushen Bandaranayake, Sachindu Wanasekera, Anuhas Kodituwakku and Upek Gammudali.

Trinity is coached by Fazil Marija and assisted by Buddhika Thalagampola.

The closest between the two schools been a draw in 2013 at 32 apiece. That is the year when the Rajans were crowned as league champions. Trinity got a clean sheet against the Rajans in all the other games. 

Meanwhile Dharmaraja will be led by Poojana Ratnayake and supported by the two vice captains of the outfit Luchithra Wijayaratne and Anupa Herath. They also have Chandeepa Bandara, Charuka Jayawardena, Nimesha Peiris and Chalana Mendis in their starting line-up.

Rajans are coached by Dinesh Gamage with Achala Perera assisting him. 

Referee will be Aruna Shantha.