S. Thomas' College Vs Trinity College Rugby Match (STC - Nil : Trinity - 14)
played on Saturday, the 15th July 2006 at the Bogambara Stadium - Kandy

Press Reports :
Trinity triumph 12-0

by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy Sports Corr. - http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2006/07/16/spo03.asp

Trinity registered hat-trick of wins when scored a rousing 12 points (1 goal, 1 try) to nil win over S. Thomas in their 29th encounter for the Canon R. S. de Seram Shield rugby match played at the Bogambara Stadium. At half Trinity led 7-0.

With this win the Trinitian have scored their third successive win in the series to bring their tally to 17 wins against 11 by the Thomians with one match ending in a draw.

Before the commencement of the match both teams were introduced to the guest of honour Maurice Perera, Quentin Israel, David Ponniah, Dayalan Subramaniam and Rod Gilbert.

Heavy showers before and during the match made ground condition wet and slippery and both teams had a tough time in handling the ball. The Trinitians held sway in the line out through some fine jumping by Sean Wanigasekera and Rasantha Madawala. The scrums appeared to be equally shared.

The Trinitians opened their account in the 20th minute of their half when scrum half Nishantha Manickam sent a short pass to centre Kosala Tissera who sprinted nearly 40 metres to touch down under the post.

But the turn around saw the Thomians putting up a better performance and territorially they dominated play.

They too had there chances of scoring but spilled passes. Midway in the second half they did everything but score. They forced three scrums a few metres from the goal-line and they got respite only after fly half Anojan Balasunderam relieved pressure by clearing the ball. Their full back S. Dharmadasa too fluffed a penalty from kicking range.

Trinity's second scoring effort came two minutes from the end when the Thomian three-quarters were found off side and a penalty was awarded. Fly half Anojan Balasunderam taking the short tap moved the ball down the line and lock forward Rasantha Madawala backed up well to score far left. This try went uncoverted.

Priyantha Gunaratne refereed

Trinity won the under 18 game 5-0. The under 16 match ended in a 5 all draw. The under 12 and under 14 games were won by Trinity by margins of 19-0 and 14-0 respectively.

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Thomians looking forward to another successful season

Dinesh WEERAWANSA - http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/07/15/spo02.asp

The S. Thomas’ College rugby team

RUGBY: S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia will be looking forward to another successful Inter-school Rugby season in 2006 after their impressive performance at last year's tournament.

Led by Sri Lanka under-19 captain Namal Rajapaksa, S. Thomas' emerged runners-up to Kingswood in the 2005 Singer Inter-school League Championship and also regained the coveted Gunaratne Trophy, beating their traditional rivals Royal 20-5 after a lapse of five years.

His younger brother Yoshitha Rajapaksa will captain S. Thomas' this year. No. 8 Rajapaksa has been a versatile young sportsman. Apart from his first love rugby, he has shown great form in shooting at national level and has also taken part in a couple of motor racing events.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa (Captain)

In fact, S. Thomas' created history last year by having three brothers in their first XV team for two matches during the last season. Interestingly, all three, skipper Namal and his younger brothers Yoshitha and Rohitha, played in the Thomian 'pack', which undoubtedly could be a record.

This year's S. Thomas' team will have only two coloursmen in No. 8 Yoshitha Rajapaksa and his deputy cum centre Balachandran Thaneeshan. But the team is packed with several talented players who have first XV match experience during the last season.

The Thomians started off the 2006 season on a winning note, beating Zahira College by 33 points to 7 last week. But the real test for the Thomians would come today when they scrum down with Trinity in their Canon R.S. de Saram Shield match to be played at Bogambara Stadium, Kandy.

While the Thomians would come into the crucial game with their heads high, the Trinitians will try to forget the bitter experience they had last weekend, losing their centenary encounter against Kingswood 10-16. Leading Trinity in today's game will be No. 8 Imalka Maddumapatabendi.

Apart from today's match, S. Thomas' will have a few traditional fixtures as the holders - Gunaratne Trophy match against Royal, Lady Jayatillake Shield match against St. Joseph's and Archibald Perera Trophy encounter against St. Peter's.

The much looked forward to Royal-Thomian rugby encounter for the Michael Gunaratne Trophy will be played after the league season on September 16.

Drawn in Group 'A' for the league championship, the Thomians are down to play their tournament fixtures with Kingswood, St. Anthony's, St. Peter's, Ananda, Thurstan and Wesley.

The best era in Thomian rugby was from 1989 to 1991, during which they won 42 consecutive matches. The most impressive of them all was the 1989 team under Rizvi Suhayb

Reference : http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/07/15/spo02.asp

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Disjointed Trinity overcome S. Thomas’ Trinity – 12 S. Thomas’ – 0

By Aubrey Kuruppu - http://sundaytimes.lk/060716/sports/sp4.1.html

A little disjointed and uncoordinated their play might have been. Yet Trinity on the day looked slightly more thrustful and eked out a 12 points (1 goal, 1 try) to nil win over S. Thomas’ at Bogambara to retain the Canon R.S. De Saram Trophy for another year.

The Trinitians pinned their opponents down in their territory for a good part of this half. Ironically they scored on one of the rare occasions when the ball was in their 22. Centre Kosala Tissera latched onto a loose ball and sped down for a good opportunist try. Balasundaram goaled it and the home team led 7-0.
Skipper Maddumapatabendi looked dangerous with his breaks from the scrum. The Trinity back division showed flair and a willingness to run with the ball. But the service to the back division was not all that good.

Having conceded a 7-0 lead at lemons, the Thomians played more attacking rugby in the second half. They even pressured the Trinity defence with three five yard scrums.But the Trinity defence held.

The Trinitians came back towards the end and had a push over try by Rasika Madawala to show for their efforts.

The Thomians could have made a match of it had they put over a couple of fairly easy penalties. In fact the goal kicking of both teams left a lot to be desired.

Referee Priyantha Gunaratne.
In the junior games (Under 12) Trinity beat STC 19-0; (Under 14) Trinity beat STC 14-0; (Under 16) Trinity and STC drew 5 each; (Under 18) Trinity beat STC 5-0.