And upon the field of sport Thomians yield to none
 |
 |
| STC 1989 1st XV | STC 1989 1st XV with Steff |
Havelock park on a sweltering 1st Term afternoon. Over sixty Thomians of all body shapes & sizes fitted in their kit, warmed up and ready to take on all comers in the ensuing schools rugby season. Last year hadn’t been one of the best for the 1st XV. The under 17s however were unbeaten. We were therefore quietly confident. The under 17 side skippered by winger Prasad Wimalasekera had played eight matches the previous season. Five of them against 2nd XV teams from Thurstan 28 - nil, Ananda 26 - nil, Dharmaraja 32 - nil, Isipatana 12 - nil & St. Peters whom we also beat 07 - 06. Quite remarkable considering we were 15 or 16 year old boys playing against 17 or 18 year old opponents.
We also played under 17 teams from St. Josephs and won 32 – nil, Trinity 13 – 10 courtesy a last minute Marque Rathnayake (the now obsolete place kicking front rower) penalty. Although we out scored them two tries to one, the game of the season was against Royal College. The full time score of 13 – 13 reflected the caliber of both squads and hinted at a dog fight for the next couple of 1st XV seasons. At the end of the 1987 season one of the local broadsheets carried an unprecedented half page story on the virtues of the unbeaten Thomian under17 team. “A good future for Thomian rugby” it announced.
Prophetic words which unfortunately didn’t find favour with the Sub Warden, who took it upon himself to teach us a lesson in humility. He also drew our attention to an appropriate line in the college song and suggested a responsibility to respect and dignify its credo. We were therefore denied permission to play in what was to be the last time the Outstation Schools played the Colombo Schools for the Gratian Cup. On form we might have had a record 8 or 9 Thomians in the Outstation under 17 side. It must be said that in hindsight, more than two decades later, those lessons of humility in victory and Thomian character have defined our successes and failures both as teammates & friends and subsequently as husbands & fathers.
Our Rugby education however, didn’t start at the under 17 and 1st XV level. It started in fact many terms before when as barefooted Lower School under 13ers we were coached by Mr. M.E.C. Perera. His ambition I am sure was to make rugby as accessible and fun for any boy who wanted to experience this fantastic sport. We were taught the bare necessities of Rugby at this early stage. Tackling, kicking, passing, running, rucking & mauling skills were drilled into us until it became second nature. We had so much interest and such large numbers attending practice, College even fielded a D team. Everyone attending practices were given a game. M.E.C and Mr. Lal Kumarasinghe our dedicated master in Charge were far sighted enough to know that the more skill they imparted on to as large a number of boys, enough talent would survive the ravages of early bloomers, growth spurts, conflicting sport commitments, injury, studies and nervous parents, to provide enough of a base for the 1st XV when we got there. In hindsight they were spot on with many junior stars not making the grade for senior rugby.
My memory is vague at the best of times and without the benefit of archived commentary I will chance my pen and say that at the Under 13 level we beat most if not all adversaries. We never won the main tournament when I played, although I’m pretty sure we featured in the semi and finals every time. Sri Rahula was the monster Under 13 School back then. No one ever beat them. Not ever! Strange how despite their huge success at Under 13 levels they never produced anything at the senior age groups.
When we graduated up to the Under 15s we had Revd. Duleep de Chickera, who was also Sub Warden, as our coach. The man had an astute Rugby brain and had in previous seasons coached the college Under 17 sides. He had an ability to break this complex and intricate sport down to manageable bits. Every sequence, every period of play and even every game plan was broken down to uncomplicated simple patterns. This was a fantastic method for young school boys to pick up on and build their own game. I played two years in the Under 15s and we had reasonably successful years. Those days we played in Black and White ‘hooped’ jerseys. (I wonder why college did away with them and now play in the full dark blue strip in every junior age group?) Post match debriefings were something else. We were praised by our coach on the win, we were reminded of skill mistakes and later practiced hard to improve them but we were chastised for even the tiniest lack of team work. If there was an overlap, pass the ball. Support intelligently in attack and in defense. Ruck & maul as a unit. Abolish individualism and selfish play. These were our new rules of engagement! That coupled with the skills taught here and at the under 13 level made us a dedicated, well drilled outfit. We were unbeaten during the 1986 season, having got the better of Wesley 32 - 03, St Peters 14 - 00, Royal 11 - 00, Isipatana 08 - 04 & even Trinity in Kandy 10 - 04. We however, had one more crucial lesson and that unfortunately was going to be learnt the bitter way.
Going into the Under 15 all island rugby tournament. Scrum Half, Reza Marjan was our captain. On the season’s performance we had ill advisedly guaranteed ourselves of winning the trophy. Or so we thought! The first game of the tournament and of our campaign was versus S Thomas’ Prep School. This was a wild card game to eliminate one team from the tournament and allow the other to continue. A laughable cake walk, we didn’t even have to show up, we didn’t even really warm up that morning. We would humiliate them! And so the match kicked off at 7.30 a.m. and by 7.55a.m. we found ourselves out of the tournament and on our way home! We lost by a slight margin but nevertheless we had lost and were not even going to have any further part in this tournament!
The lessons learned that day lay a mark on our collective psyche, lasting at least till our rugby days at college were done. We never ever again took any opposition lightly. No matter whom they were. Our mental preparation and visualising game plans and execution were never to be short cut. We were never going to loose again. We just didn’t like the feeling! The guys from prep who subsequently arrived at college brought with them very different lessons from that same game. They were apparently nervous going into the match but realized if you play to your strengths you can even beat the best. The merging of this talent, skill, knowledge and conviction produced in later years an unparalleled run of rugby brilliance at S. Thomas’.
Back to the Havelock park dust bowl; For Captain Shehan Panditharatne’s 1988 season we had been told that a certain Mr. Quintin Israel would be our coach. We were excited and a little concerned. The man given our charge was a legend and we had all heard stories of his single minded focus on discipline and perfect rugby. The little man walked in with the sun gleaming off of his perfect pate. A serious and rather stark look written on his face as he swung his whistle chord around and around and around two outstretched fingers. Even the crows who a minute ago were making a ruckus in the trees seemed to go quiet out of respect, fear, awe, expectation, or maybe even a strange concoction of all of the above. Our first interaction with the Guru was a long and healthy discussion on what we wanted as a team. What we were going to do to get there and how he was going to help us find within ourselves the glory of great Thomian teams past. He insisted that there were no assured places on his team. Even if you were a coloursman! Audacious words that immediately brought in a performance culture. You play hard and earn your position on the team. All men would stand equal under God! Another thing; the Under 17, 2nd XV and 1st XV pools were to practice together. There was no elitism, seniority rights, and external influence at all. There was now a dedication to produce a winning unit for which the coach and team bore absolute and sole responsibility.
Q as we affectionately called him, although never any thing but “Sir” in his presence was the magnificent Rugby brain that orchestrated an amazing run of Thomian Rugby success. It wasn’t long before opposition teams lost even before they kicked off. Such was the domination. Q however, can not and will not take full responsibility for the passionate talented and skillful boys given to him for 1stXV duty between 1988 & 1992. Our junior coaches Mr. M.E.C Perera and Rev. Duleep de Chickera were undoubtedly the instigators who gave us the grounding & basics of the game. Mr. Lal Kumarasinghe’s contribution and dedication as Master in Charge was encouraging and supportive.
Recovering from the drubbings and psychological scars of the previous year’s 1st XV was never going to be an issue. How can a group of boys stand up to a loss of hope and expectation? We were a virtual fresher laden side ready to take on all comers. We believed in our ability, we believed in our preparation and most of all we believed we will win.
There was once a legendary American Football coach quite unlike our own Q who reasoned “Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing”. This group of Thomian Ruggerites were on a mission to break an old habit and start their own legacy.
The team’s first mission was the seven-a-side tournament. We played games over two days and made the finals beating pre tournament favorites Royal College in a brutal semi final. The ferocity of the game was highlighted by Royal’s captain, Lasitha Gooneratne (a.k.a Bonsa) spear tackling our skin and bone hooker Sanjeewa Saranapala in front of the pavilion. It’s a miracle Pala survived to tell the tale. We were unlucky to loose to Kingswood in the finals in a manner that would eerily repeat itself later on in the season. We missed a couple of penalties and uncharacteristically dropped the ball having crossed their line. We lost by One point!
The season progressed on to the league. Q along with the captain named the side for the first game. Props, Narein Perera, who later developed into one of the most technically sound scrumaging props this country has seen in the last 30 years and Ramesh Jayasinghe, Hooker Sanjeewa Saranapala, although of slight build his rugby brain and ability to chat non stop through a game became an asset and sometimes a pain. Locks Surenn de Chickera & Charya de Saram, ensured the Thomian engine room was powerful. Their line out jumping and ferocious loose play caused havoc with opposition packs. That year there were three chaps contesting the two flanker positions. Andrew John, Piyanga Mallawarachi & Mooneil Jayasekera rotated the position. All three were tenacious in defense. The number eight was Sundar Niranjan an awesome ball carrying forward. There was an article in the 1996 IRB World Cup magazine that referred to Nira as the best forward in Asian Rugby! The ‘eight’ were good but that year’s backs were sublime. Reza Marjan, lightning quick with amazing vision and ability to exploit any weakness around the fringes. Fly Half & Captain Shehan Panditahratne was a marvel. He could stop on a dime, change direction and accelerate at pace leaving many defenders eating dust. Anyone who saw him play will agree there hasn’t been a better stepper and attacking fly half in our generation at STC. He had the services of two of the most outstanding centers to wear the number 12 & 13 jerseys for College. Rizwi Suhayb, who had toured with the Sri Lanka under 20 team to the Roslyn Park sevens earlier that year & quick silver Gehan Dias had every trick in the book which they executed at blistering pace. On one wing was last year’s under 17 rugby captain Prasad Wimalasekera with more guts and commitment than the boys of that infamous light brigade. The other was a six foot four inch two hundred and thirty pound locomotive who ran the 100 meters at 11 seconds. Talavou Alailima could almost run through walls and left mere mortal defenders flattened in his awesome wake. Behind all of this athleticism stood Sajith Gunaratne. Safe as houses. No one ever got passed Sajith. He was so strong in defense I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drop a Gary Owen. His kicking ability was quite another story though. As a result he usually managed to wait on his feet for support to arrive, or more often than not gallop into touch. Which certainly yielded more yardage that if he had attempted to kick? It is a pity that no one thought to record and preserve those matches for posterity. I would have loved to have watched this three quarter line in motion from the comfort of my ‘hansi putuwa’ rather than from my usual vantage spot, at the bottom of a ruck.
We played 10 matches in the league that year and won 8 against Thurstan 30 – nil, Wesley 30 – 10, Vidyartha 24 – 03, Dharmaraja 22 – 06 and St Josephs, always a tricky game, 06 – 03. We also regained the Archibald Perera Trophy after 3 years beating St Peters 14 – nil. The next week was, for us, the biggest of the season. Royal! The newspapers couldn’t get enough of this match up. Every sports page had at least a half page articles on the fantastic Royal team going to end the unbeaten run of the Thomians who were well on their way in pursuit of past glories. Coached by two of the most illustrious Royal rugby brains, the good Doctors Fred Perera and Maiya Gunesekera, Royal was awesome under Bonsa that year. They had a heavy mobile pack and strong fast threes. The deadliest weapon in their armory however, was their phenomenal place kicking full back Shantha Fernando. I don’t think he had missed a single conversion inside of 50 meters that entire season.
We were the underdogs and College had beaten Royal only once in the 80s! The Gunaratne Trophy had missed home for 6 years. I remember feeling a sense of weightlessness in the dressing room that afternoon. Although it may have actually been the extra wintergino and salonpas spray.
This was a first Royal Thomian 1st XV match for most of us and we were going out there to have some fun. Our forwards were big we had absolute confidence in our lineout and scrum. Our confidence going into the game was not misplaced. The famed Royal ‘eight’ lost a majority of their lineouts and scrumages starving their threes of possession. The try scoring machine, Bonsa was neutralized as he was marked mercilessly. Royal scored first and we countered almost immediately with Charya scoring a try off a ploy that was hatched crafted and sold to Royal 3 weeks before. Pandi, Gehan, Dilfi and Thalavou were running beautifully into courageous Royal defense. Then their sharp shooter put over a 60 meter corner flag penalty. We missed, if memory serves correct at least 5 shots at goal. All within 35 meters of the sticks. The last one in injury time missed by a coat of paint, touching the upright and falling back into play. We also fluffed a certain try with Gihan & Pandi scissoring beating the opposition only to drop the ball over the try line. Full time Royal 10 – S. Thomas’ 09. What a fantastic match, the chock-o-block sugathadasa stadium was treated to something special. Although we lost to what would remain an unbeaten Royal side that year, we were a long way from being second best.
The euphoria was quickly extinguished the following Monday at practice. We had to now focus on going up to play Trinity in Kandy. S. Thomas’ hadn’t beaten them in the 80’s. In fact the last win was under Chrisopher Jordache in 1979 at Havelock Park. Also College hadn’t won up in Kandy since Stefan da Silva’s team in 1976. To cut a long story short, we beat Bindu Dandeniya’s Trinity 04 – 03 in a lackluster game played in front of a once again packed Bogombara crowd. Gihan Dias scored a try having crossed the line, been held up on his feet and pulled down by the entire pack. We had now regained the Canon R.S. de Saram shield after 9 years.
Down to the last two encounters for the season. The first was versus Ananda College at the Pedris Park. This game will forever be remembered as more a street brawl than a Rugby football match. The referee needed a white cane and dark glasses and I’m also pretty sure he didn’t like us very much. No excuses though. We played badly and once again our place kicking was off target missing a number of easy penalty kicks at goal. Talavou however saved the day for us by making the most difficult penalty on offer that evening. An angular 45 meter kick with the ball placed in a big puddle of muddy water. With the ball splitting the uprights the full time scores read 15 – 15. A draw! This match was the only real disappointment we had all season. We were put off our game by the Anandian tactics and nearly paid the ultimate price of losing.
Isipatana was our last game for the regular season. They too had a superb side with some big named players. They like us had lost only to Royal. The CR&FC ground was packed to the rafters with the Pavilion full of Thomians and the scoreboard side with Isipatana supporters. What a match! Hard hits in the contact and around the breakdowns, skilled threes on both sides. No quarter given and certainly none asked for. Unfortunately some of the spectators couldn’t handle the contest nor the score line and invaded the grounds attacking us with rocks, sticks, chairs and anything else they could get their hands on. We were retreated into the dressing room and the game was awarded to us 8 minutes before full time with the score S. Thomas’ 10 Isipatana 03. College had beaten the green shirts after 7 years.
Were we changing old habits? You bet we were! The season’s results read; played 10, won 8, drew 1, lost 1.
The Premadasa knock out tournament was next. We went into the game minus a number of regular players due to GCE examinations and injury. Our quarter final was against Ananda. Strangely with the same referee who blew our regular season game in attendance. No surprise that it was more of the same from the regular season with some heavily disputed calls that eventually cost us the match. History will show us as having lost without a footnote on circumstance. And she is right!
If 1988 could be likened to a bucking bronco with a young fresher laden eight complimented by mercurial three quarters, the 1989 side was going to be a rampaging steed with awesome power and presence! The forwards were huge, powerful & ruthless. I may be wrong but this was probably the biggest pack to ever come out of Mt. Lavinia. Everyone was over 6 foot tall and the weight would pulverize most opposition packs. Props, Narein Perera easily the best prop this country has produced & Marque Rathnayake strong as an Ox with a delightful place kick that was proven to be a match winner many times. Hooker, Sanjeeva Saranapala, who had now gotten chattier as a coloursman. Pala was the lightest in our pack and he literally hung off the props shoulders giving him the ability to strike off both feet. At least two or three opposition hookers have actually pleaded with him to let them win their own scrums. The locks were Surenn de Chickera & Charya de Saram, now with a reputation. Flankers were Jeevantha Jayathilake, who did a lot of the hard work on the ground as well as off the ball, complimenting Savantha de Saram on the other side who was the youngest in the side at 16 but who had good rugby vision and mobility. Sundar Niranjan was at his rampaging best at Number Eight. Scrum Half Reza Marjan had the luxury of playing behind all this power pairing off with Fly Half Suresh Tissarachchi. The centers were Rizwi Suhayb (Dilfi), our Captain now playing in his 5th year for College and Harin Perera (HC) who was barely even looked at in the previous year but had managed to work hard on his skills in the off season with prodigious results. I should wait for later on in the piece to say it but I can’t! Nothing ever got passed Dilfi & HC. The hits in the contact they made on people weren’t gentle. Thank God they were on our side! Whilst one position of wing three quarter was held down by Umanga Abeysekera, Q’s choice of most improved player. The other wing was an issue throughout the season. Dilshard Anzari, who was literally the Sri Lankan version of Australia’s David Campese, Ranjith Sevneviratne, 100 meter sprinter Jaliya Jayasuriya all played at one time or another. The issue was not that anyone of these guys were weak but that they were all so good with different abilities that deciding whom to play was not easy. The full back was Sajith Gunaratne who was still the safest fullback in the country. If last year’s three quarters were mercurial this year’s was in your face, hard nosed, and tough as nails.
We didn’t realise at the time this that team was destined to write history but we did know that we were going to have a heck of a lot of fun playing Rugby. Q seemed to sense this year was going to be special, so he with the assistance of some old Thomians together with our Warden de Alwis, Sub Warden de Chickera and master in charge Kumarasinghe assembled a coaching and support staff of some repute. That year we were given fresh milk, marrow bone soup, chocolates, massages in the sick room and the kitchen sink. Oh, and sustagen and a vial full of vitamins & iron supplements.
Nothing however, compared to sitting in the twilight after a particularly hard practice session waiting for a former Thomian Rugby legend who we were told was now chief jailor in the Queensland state correctional facility. He was going to be our fitness coach! It was love at first sight; Mr. Stefan da Silva was larger in person. He was big. He was bald. He had a handlebar mustache. He had Attitude and he knew the nutritional secrets of Bombay Onions and Ana Malus. The first couple of weeks of training were spent doing an uncountable number of 10 & 10s. A 10 & 10 was simply 10 sit ups and 10 push ups done any and every time the ball touched the ground. Stef’s sadistic pleasure was short lived as we got pretty good and rarely if ever dropped the ball. Mr. Ravi Mendis was the other assistant coach who basically refereed all our practice runs and games. He too had played rugby for college and was quite good at technicalities. Speaking of practice games that year we played a number against A division club teams. Navy, Army, Havelocks, CH&FC and even the Champion Police side. We beat them on occasion. Some others we beat more frequently! The Thomian pack that year outplayed these club packs in set pieces and in the loose. What chance did mere school boy sides have?
The 1989 Thomian team will, in my opinion, be the best Rugby team college produced. Not only because we remained unbeaten throughout the regular season and through the Premadasa knock outs but because the quality of the opposition that year was top draw. Also Seven players from the college team, Narein Perera, Sanjeeva Saranapala, Surenn de Chickera, Charya de Saram, Sundar Niranjan, Reza Marjan with Rizwi Suhayb (who captained) played for the Sri Lanka under 19 side that toured Thailand in 1989. 5 players from the team, Narein Perera, Sundar Niranjan, Harin Perera, Rizwi Suhayb and Savantha de Saram went on to win full national caps as well.
In more recent times when some of us hosted our old coach Q to dinner, the conversation would strangely digress back to Thomian Rugby. As the man was the coach of the 1st XV team in the late 60’s through the 70’s and early 80’sl we would often ask him to name his “all time Thomian dream XV”, or to recall his happiest and most challenging times as a coach. We would also ask him to name “The Best Thomian Rugby team”. Q had an amazing memory and would recall the minutest of detail from any game he coached. He also knew the strengths and weaknesses of every player and every team inside out. However, whilst he often spoke highly of three or four particular years he never committed to anyone of those being “The Best”! He said he would write a memoir and I for one hope his wealth of history is captured somewhere for the benefit of Thomians young and Thomians old.
Back to the Rugby; The first 3 games in the ‘89 against Thurstan 16 – 03, Wesley 42 – 06 and Vidyartha 28 – 00 were spent experimenting with combinations & permutations for the bigger challenges promised deeper into the season. Somehow St Josephs had been a funny game for us. We’d won but with low scoring, slim margins. This year too was no different. 09 – 04. The next three games were crucial must win affairs. St Peters, Royal & Trinity. All three had very good sides with very different looks. First St Peters at Bambalapitiya. The game was billed as Thomian forwards versus Peterite threes. Their three quarters were fast. Wing Shane de Silva was the incumbent 100 meter public schools champ the other wing was Dinesh Kakultota who finished second in that race. Roger Rode was full back but for smooth beautiful rugby it was their center & Captain Colin Denish and fly half Ravin Jayamanthri. These two were good; very good. I think Jayamanthri and Roger Rode ended up scoring the most number of tries that season. Anyway the game went down as billed. We controlled the game with our forwards our threes defended what little ball was given to their opposite numbers and we came away with a 13 – 04 win. The previous day Q had confided in some of us that his biggest concern this season was St Peters. He said they had too much fire power in their threes. After the game he said that you can have Gods in your line but if you don’t have forwards you will never win!
Then it was Royal under Anura Dhammika. We played at Havelock Park and won a game of attrition 03 – 00 courtesy a Marque Rathnayake penalty conversion. It wasn’t as fantastic a game as last year’s was. Royal played out of their skins. If not for Reza Marjan who absolutely destroyed his opposite number Shanaka Seneviratne, Sanjeeva Saranapala who won every tight head & loose head against Dilshard Hettiarachchi & Marque Rathnayake’s well aimed conversion, the game would have probably been lost or at the very least drawn. But we didn’t know how to do either one of those and the win was a win. The Gunaratne Trophy was back at Mount Lavinia after 7 years!
The Trinity Lions came down to Colombo to have us for breakfast; or so the papers proclaimed. Trinity, like Royal and St Peters before were unbeaten until they played us. Unfortunately for the Trinitians they rubbed us the wrong way before the game even kicked off. We weren’t really primed for this one, but after the exchange of words we were raring to go in a hurry. Trinity was completely and aggressively outplayed. Probably their only real moment of attack was a Reza Odaya penalty right in front of our uprights. Someone said the score line of 16 – 03 didn’t do justice to the level of domination and control we had. He said it was like watching a club side play a school side. Maybe all those practice games were showing now.
There was some nasty political stuff going on at the time and our matches against Dharmaraja & Ananda were cancelled that year. As a result we had a long forced lay off of three weeks. We still however, had to play Isipatana after the break.
I think we over trained. In fact breaking away from our usual practice and training schedule we had a heavy session the day before the match as well. We were actually run ragged by our coach that evening. It didn’t help that our fitness coach, confidant and friend had gone back to the prisoners who were desperately missing him. After last years shenanigans at Longdon place this years encounter was played at the Sugathadasa stadium. I could be slightly wrong but not by much to say that we defended 50 of the 60 minutes of that match. Wave after wave of Pathane offense was met with stubborn resistance and goal line heroics. Stand out performances were from Nira, Sajith & our new fly half Chirantha de Zoysa. Chirantha was pure natural talent. He could kick with both feet, he had wonderful balance and skill. With his inclusion we now had probably the best halves combination in schools.
The match ended with us winning 03 – nil. We had done it. We had remained unbeaten. We were probably the first Thomian side to go through the league winning all our matches. What a feeling it was!
We spent two days partying, we deserved it. Monday rolled around whilst that last euphoric hangover still lingered and then it was time to bring ourselves back down to earth and focus on our next goal. We were going to correct a slight anomaly in schools rugby history by changing a statistic that read, no Thomian side had won the Premadasa Trophy.
We were drawn against Kingswood College Kandy in the quarter final. These guys were an unknown force. We knew they had beaten us last year in the 7-a-side final, we had read that they too were undefeated in the season and of the schools we had played they had beaten Thurstan & Wesley. We also knew that their’s was the cradle of rugby on this island and they had an impressive tradition. We also read the press that said we may loose. I don’t think they really meant it, they were just creating hype.
Jeeve had the game of his life and as usual was outstanding in defense and even found time for some big carries of the football. We won 28 – 04. No sweat. On to the Semis for a date with the Trinity Lions who were smacking the chops for a chance at retribution. That game will be remembered for our Lock Chicki’s deft dummy pass, wrong footing the entire Trinity team and foxing most of us. I’m not sure if it were the after effects of that or if it was the total rugby we were playing that left the full time score line 20 – 07 in our favor. There was a sense of invincibility and absolute confidence in ourselves and we were playing beautiful rugby as a result. Royal lost to Isipatana in the other semi and destiny was about to be written.
The press boys couldn’t make up their minds. Half of them predicted a Thomian rugby double the other half said that Isipatana would win it. They had an amazing record of playing in every previous Premadasa final unfortunately losing to Trinity and Royal in the previous years. Trinity had pulled off an unbeaten season with the rugby double in 1987 under Tyrel Rajapakse. Royal repeated the feat under Lasitha Gunaratne in 1988 and now was it S. Thomas’ turn? We were primed for this one. Again it was a ferocious rugger match and Chira, the newbie had a blinder that earned him the man of the match. I can’t remember much of the game except that I’m sure there were 30 guys playing on the other side! At half time the scores read 03 – 03. The heavy battering and bone jarring hits took their toll on the Pathane boys and we scored 12 unanswered points in the second half. Dilfi was awarded the trophy by His Excellency President Ranasinghe Premadasa and we were now undisputedly on top of the World. Sri Lanka schools unbeaten rugby champions! We had won the double. We were also on our way to tour Malaysia & Thailand. I will spare you the details of that rather boorish trip in this article, but buy me a beer at the local club and I promise never a dull moment!
Was this the greatest Thomian Rugby team? Who’s to disagree? Besides beating high quality teams what this team did was to spawn an unprecedented run of Thomian dominance in schools rugby. We went on to produce unbeaten teams in 1990 under Prop Narein Perera and in 1991 under Charya de Saram both sides winning the Rugby Double. This unbeaten and still unparallel sequence of victories in Sri Lanka schools ended after a run of 47 matches when S. Thomas’ lost to a fresher laden Royal side in 1992.
We will wait for the day when another generation of Thomians will couple skill and strength with passion and pride and lay claim to being the Best Thomian side ever!
By: Mitre B. Gilbert