Trinity hold edge in Canon R.S. De Saram Trophy clash against Thomians

By Shamseer Jaleel

Trinity will be favoured to retain the Canon R.S. De Saram Trophy when they confront S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia at the Pallekelle Rugby Stadium on 7 April.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 4.15 p.m.

Trinity, who are going through a tough time this season, will be led by their regular skipper Avishka Sheik after he returned from injury. He was not in the starting line-up against Kingswood.

Trinity will depend heavily on their three-quarter line to attack and at the same time defend well. Naveen Rararanam and Warren Weerakoon will be the centre of attention. Vishwa Ranaraja and scrum half Amith Kulatunge will both be brilliant players to watch out for on attack, while in forwards play Mohamed Ikram will be the player to watch out for. 

Trinity beat St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota 15-11 and then went down to St. Joseph’s College 25-32 and Kingswood College 21-23 after a lapse of nine years. 

Kicking has been a major worry for the lads but former Trinitian and Kandy SC and Sri Lanka Sevens player Saliya Kumara is working with the team to get them back on track. In the last game they improved to a 100% conversion record. They are coached by New Zealand Sevens player Lote Raikabulla.

Meanwhile, the Thomians are going through a bad patch and have lost all three of their games. They lost to St. Joseph’s College and Royal College by huge margins and found it tough to get past the Kingswoodians up in Kandy, losing to them by two tries. 

Both teams will be battling it out for fourth place in their respective groups. A defeat here would mean the Thomians will feature in the Plate competition. The Thomians are led by Numbers 8 Christina de Lile. They are coached by Bilal Yusuf.

The Canon R.S. De Saram Trophy encounters started between the two brother schools back in 1978. Out of the 40 encounters, Trinity have won 23 matches while the Thomians have secured the trophy on 17 occasions. The series of matches between these two schools started way back in 1955. Out of the 55 games played so far, Trinity leads the tally with 37 to the Thomians’ 26 while two of them have ended in a tie while there was no game played in 1971.

On the same day (7 April), the Katugastota Antonians will meet the high-riding Kingswoodians at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium. Kingswood are favoured to pull off a win with their current form and secure third position.