Royal hold edge over Wesley

By Shamseer Jaleel

This season’s formidable Royal College rugby outfit, led by Number 8 Nikila Gunadheera, will meet Wesley College today at the CR&FC grounds in a Milo President’s Trophy knockout encounter. 

It will be an uphill battle for the Wesley team, led by the gutsy Zayan Sabar, to bring the Royalists down. Royal, who enjoyed great success through their forwards’ rolling maul, lost to Isipathana, S. Thomas’ College and Trinity this season. Royal will depend heavily on their in-from hooker Azmir Fajudeen, Ovin Askey, Reza Hamza and Ashok Kumar to deliver the goods today. Meanwhile, Wesley will rely on Kuthubdeen, Avishka Lee and Skipper Zayan to take them to the semi-finals next weekend. Royal have won the Milo President’s Trophy knockout tournament in 2002 while Wesley clinched it in 2013. The game will be refereed by Priya Suranga.

Thomians should have things their own way 

League runners-up S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia will seek retribution through this tournament when they launch their campaign with a game against Zahira College at the Royal Sports Complex tomorrow.

The Thomians, who are enjoying one of their best seasons in a while, captured the School Sevens title and finished behind Isipathana in the league. Led by Hooker Pandula de Silva they have some class acts in their ranks. Winger Naveen Heenakankanmge is simply the best winger in school this season. His swift moves will be a constant threat to Zahira’s defence.   

Zahira too enjoyed one of their best seasons this time around, almost defeating St. Joseph’s College at one point. They are led by Mohamed Ramzan and coached by former Isipathana, CR&FC and Sri Lanka Sevens player Shamly Nawas. The Thomians won the Milo President’s Trophy knockout title in 2009. The game will be referee by Dharmapala Nimal. 

Isipathana (6), St Peter’s (5), Kingswood (4), Royal (2), S. Thomas (1), Wesely (1), Trinity (1), Science (1) and Thurstan (1) are the competition’s past winners. Defending champions Science unfortunately pulled out of the competition due to a lack of funds.