Wesley College Manager Ven. Perry Brohier (fourth from left), Wesley College Principal Avanka Fernando, Citizens Development Business (CDB) Marketing Assistant General Manager Suneth Senadheera (second from right), CDB Brands Head Mevan Ranasinghe with Wesley College official at the Wesley Rugby 2024 official launch and felicitating sponsors in Colombo

DEEDAT Assistant General Manager Raneez Sheriff (fourth from left), Marketing Manager Sham Mohideen (second from left) and Brand Executive Shahid Haris at the event

D’las Vice President Mevan De Silva (third from left), Group General Manager Nalin Asela Lokuge (second from right) and Business Development Manager Shiraz Samsudeen at the event 

Wesley College Colombo who are celebrating their Sesquicentennial-150th year this year launched their 68th Rugby season with an official press conference and felicitation held at the Rev. John

Wesley Bungalow at  Karlsruhe Gardens on Friday 7 June.

3rd year player Shem Mendis will be leading the Double Blues as Captain with 3rd year player Dillon de Silva as Vice Captain. The Wesleyites will be guided this year under a strong Kingswood-Wesley coaching combination. Former Wesley, CR&FC, Havies league winning Captain and Sri Lanka National Tusker Henry Terence as Head Coach, Former Kingswood, Kandy SC, Sri Lanka and 7s specialist Amjad Buksh serves as Backs Coach, former Kingswoodian and Navy SC skipper Thilina Weerasinghe is the Kicking Coach (record holder for scoring 100+ in 3 back to back club seasons) and former Sri Lanka Schools double International in rugby and hockey Randeera de Silva is the Forwards Coach. Meanwhile the experienced Tharanga Galapitawatta is the Physiotherapist.

Citizens Development Business (CDB) has continued to support Wesley Rugby and is their Principal Sponsor for the season-2024. Deedat continues their support as a Co- Sponsor along with D’las who have also come forward to support the team. 

Hemas Pharmaceutical with their Product ‘Appeton’ would be the Nutrition Partner whilst HNB Assurance would provide protection to the team as their Insurance Partner.

The prestigious L.E. Blaze Trophy played between traditional rivals Kingswood College Kandy, the oldest rugby fixture of the school against Royal College and the traditional encounter for the Sir Oliver Goonetilleke Shield against S. Thomas’ College Mt.Lavinia will be hosted by Wesley this year.  

Taking up the oval ball game in 1956 under Eddie Buell as their first captain, Wesley has come a long way in the game. Former School Master Donton D’Abrera is dubbed as the ‘Father of Wesley Rugby’ who did yeoman service to uplift the game. In terms of the Schools Rugby League, the Wesley College lads are yet to win a League title, however they were an inch close in 1997 and 2003/04 ending as Runners-Up. Wesley’s glorious year was 2013, winning their maiden 1st XV silverware, the President’s Trophy Knock-outs under the mercurial Rahul de Silva. They ended up as Runner-Up in 2002, 2004 and 2019 being the most successful season under Mursheed Doray (League 4th). In 2022 under Tharusha Jayaweera they finished the league at 4th and were knockout semi-finalists. Last year under Kaweesh Jayman the Wesleyites were dubbed the most unlucky team of the season as they suffered nail-biting losses, however they showed immense potential with an extremely young outfit and managed to retain the Blaze Trophy by winning back to back for the first time since 1997 and 98. Wesley’s oldest rival in Rugby is Royal College whom they have played since 1956 and lost narrowly 3-0 in the inaugural game at Campbell Park.

 Reggie Bartholomuesz, Zubair Doray, Ranjith Abeydeera, Ransiri Sahabandu, Cavan Gauder, Iqbal Musafer, Kishan Musafer, Zulfikar Haaleemdeen, Henry Terence, Niranjan Wickremaratne, Samantha Lakshan, Rahul de Silva, Shehan Mevan Dias, Dulanjana Wijesinghe, Shashika Fernando, Mursheed Doray are some notable players who donned the National Jersey. Shashika and Mursheed are the most recent Tuskers who played at the Asia Rugby Division-1 Finals in Colombo last month.

Wesley Rugby fraternity wishes all the schools the very best of luck and enjoy the game with true sportsmanship whilst uplifting the spirit of the game we all cherish. 

Pix by Ruwan Walpola

Wesley Rugby 2024 - Fixtures

15 June - Zahira College (Zahira Grounds)

22 June - Thurstan College (Air Force)

29 June - St. Peter’s College (Bambalapitiya)

6 July - St. Joseph’s College (Havies)

12 July - Royal College (Havies) - Home

20 July - Kingswood College (TBD) - Blaze Trophy - Home 

28 July - Vidyartha College (Nittawela)

(August) - S. Thomas’ College - Sir Oliver Goonetilleke Shield (TBD) - Home