Sports

St. Peter’s firm favourites as rugby knockouts set to commence sans Royal

Published

3 years ago

2023/08/25

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Seven of the best school rugby teams this season will vie for honours when the Dialog sponsored under 19 inter-school President’s Trophy knockout tournament commences without runners-up in the league tournament, Royal College.

This is not the first time that Royal has pulled out of the knockouts and even to date there is no reason given for their unavailability for the upcoming rugby tournament which is conducted by the Schools Rugby Football Association. However, strangely or understandably this Royal side has made a commitment to play their traditional fixture against S. Thomas’ on Saturday (August 27) instead of featuring in the knockouts. The knockout tournament commences on Friday (August 25) with D.S Senanayake taking on Zahira at Havelock Park. It must be mentioned here that these two teams have come a long way having featured in the bottom grade or Division 1 Segment B last season before the tournament organizers handed them promotions.

This year’s league tournament winners St. Peter’s are the hot favourites to win the knockouts, but they’ll have competition coming their way from sides like Isipatana, St. Anthony’s and Trinity. The seven teams in the knockout are St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, Trinity, D.S Senanayake, St. Anthony’s , Zahira and reigning champions Isipatana. The ‘Green Jerseys’ will get a bye and go straight into the semi finals of the tournament. Unlike in past years there is no provision for one of the top two teams in Division 1 Segment B to fill in the void created by a team pulling out of this tournament; conducted for teams in Division 1 Segment A. Otherwise Sri Sumangala Kandy or Thurstan College Colombo-the two teams qualifying to play in Segment A next year-could have had a go in the knockouts.

Last year Isipatana won the knockout trophy beating St. Joseph’s 49-22 in the final. The quarterfinal matches to be played at Havelock Sports Club are: D.S Senanayake vs Zahira (August 25), St. Anthony’s vs St. Joseph’s (August 26), St. Peter’s vs Trinity (August 27).

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Related Topics:Isipatana St. Anthony Zahira

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2 hours ago

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A 36 ball 63 by Sahan Arachchige and three wickets each by Eshan Malinga [3-13] and Tharindu Rathnayake [3-19] helped Galle Gallants defeat Jaffna Kings by 60 runs in the 10th match of the Lanka Premier League 2026. Galle Gallants lead the points table with three wins from four outings.

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Galle Gallants 193/8 in 20 overs [Chris Lynn 46, Sahan Arachchige 63, Dasun Shanaka 12, Dinura Kalupahana 10, Mohammad Nawaz 27; Mohamed Shiraz 1-23, Dunith Wellalage 1-13, Shakib Al Hasan 1-27, Dilshan Madushanaka 2-35, Lizaad Williams 2-37]

Jaffna Kings 133 in 17.5 overs [Kamil Mishara 15, Ibrahim Zadran 11, David Weise 22, Dunith Wellalage 56; Dasun Shanaka 1-21, Tharindu Rathnayake 3-19, Akif Javed 1-22, Eshan Malinga 3-13, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 1-32]

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Hermann, Liyanage and Mujeeb steer Colombo Kaps to a 23 run win

Published

2 hours ago

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Janith Liyanage scored an unbeaten 52 [LPL]

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Colombo Kaps 192/9 in 20 overs [Rubin Hermann 53, Sharujan Shanmuganathan 14, Janith Liyanage 52*, James Neesham 24, Binura Fernando 21; Vijay Shankar 1-0, Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-34, Nuwan Thushara 1-31, Moeen Ali 2-31, Dushan Hemantha 2-20]

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Sri Lanka edge Qatar in Davis Cup opener

Published

8 hours ago

2026/07/24

Thilina Walpola

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The visitors struck first when Mubarak Alharrasi defeated Sri Lanka’s Apna Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in a hard-fought opening singles encounter, giving Qatar an early 1-0 lead.

Sri Lanka bounced back in the second singles as Thehan Wijemanne produced a spirited comeback to overcome Mossa Alharrasi 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After dropping the opening set, Wijemanne showed great composure to win the next two sets and level the tie at 1-1.

The decisive doubles match proved to be a tense affair, with Apna Perera returning to partner Saha Kapilasena. The Sri Lankan duo held their nerve in two tie-breaks to defeat Jabar Al Mutawan and Mossa Alharrasi 7-6, 7-6, sealing the tie 2-1 for the hosts.

Sri Lanka’s ability to recover from the opening singles defeat highlighted the team’s resilience as Wijemanne’s comeback victory and the doubles pair’s clutch performance ensured a successful start to their campaign. The hosts will now look to build on the opening-day victory as they continue their quest for promotion in the Asia/Oceania Group IV competition.