by A Special Sports Correspondent

The inter-school rugby season for 2024 was one of the most competitive with Isipatana coming back with vengeance to win the knockout final. St. Peter’s won the league tournament a few weeks ago, but were denied of winning a triple.

Time and again we saw close encounters during the school rugby season. Even a top rated team like Isipatana had to score many a come from behind wins. All the team’s playing in division 1 segment 1 had improved by leaps and bounds. No team was safe playing mediocre rugby because there were so many hungry wolves wanting a piece from the rugby pie. Once again school rugby showed that it is a product that is sellable or marketable in the commercial world. School rugby dwarfed school cricket in an island where the bat and ball game largely defines the character and colour of its people more than any other sport.

Sri Lanka at one time even believed in foreign coaches for even school teams. Royal and Trinity are two schools which have often opted for foreign coaches. But after so many years we saw Royal sticking with a Sri Lankan coach in Dushanth Lewke, who is also a product of this school at Reid Avenue. He has just completed 50 games for Royal this season as head coach and that feat came when his chargers beat S.Thomas’ at the annual Michael Guneratne trophy rugby encounter. There were so many other schools which banked on local or homegrown talent when picking their coaching staff.

Seasoned campaigner Sanath Martis has brought enough glory to St. Peter’s this season. The lads from Bambalapitiya won the Elite Rugby Sevens conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association and then took home the league title. They were denied of a triple by Isipatana. The only little set back suffered by the Peterites was losing Yumeth Shihara who was unavailable for the final due to injury.

Isipatana were loaded with steppers (fast runners). That opening try scored by Abdul Aziz epitomized the dazzling, nerve tingling rugby that the Havelock Town school plays. Aziz sliced through the Peterite defence with a swerving run and went under the posts untouched. That run and the style in which he played the game reminisced two past Isipatana players in the likes of Roger Rodrigo and T.K. Bohoran; both scrum halves who went on to represent Sri Lanka. These players have underscored the stuff that Isipatana rugby is made of.

But the game has changed drastically. Now it’s a man to man confrontation before someone takes the ball over the opposite team’s goal line. Skipper and number eight Nisaja Jayaweera knew that aspect of the game more than anyone else out there playing school rugby. Many times this season he left opposite teams in shambles with his power play. If we don’t talk about fly half Shaahid Zumri we’ll be doing injustice to a great talent. He is certainly beyond the level of the performance demanded in school rugby. There is speculation that the lad can play one more season for Isipatana. Possessing running skills, the side step, the ability to spot gaps in the defence and the appetite to tackle with gusto, he was the man to watch among the green shirts this season. And like how a schoolboy should be we come to hear, through sources at his school, that all these personal successes haven’t gone to his head. He remains a humble and friendly lad outside the rugby field. We see the warrior in him only on the rugby field. Isipatana’s head coach Saliya Kumara can take a bow for bringing to the school a lovely piece of silver wear. There is a school of thought in rugby that the true champions during a season are the ones who win the knockout tournament.

Mention must be made of S. Thomas’ for reaching the semi finals of the knockout tournament. They were so unlucky to lose to Isipatana after the scores were deadlocked at 20 all. Isipatana prevailed over S. Thomas’ in extra time; thanks to the match winning try coming from Zumri.

The school rugby season had full of opportunities for less popular teams. Lalith Athulathmudali MV won the Chairman’s Trophy beating Nugawela Central. Mahanama College Colombo beat Ananda College Maradana to win the Premier Trophy.

Rugby is a sport that keeps growing. We saw Thurstan and Sri Sumangala Katugastota entering division 1 segment 1. That was laudable. But the message in the top division in rugby was clear to all: many run race but only a few survive!