Thomians out to give of their best this year

Chris Dhambarage

S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia with a highly talented outfit are confident of putting up a good performance in the current inter school rugby season.

The team may be studded with only five coloursman but the fact is that they have several other experienced players who have been around the scene for more than two seasons.

The Thomians in fact have already proved a point by providing a star studded Royal team a great scare while going down fighting in their annual encounter last week on their home grounds.

The manner in which they played this game was really outstanding where they came from behind with a remarkable performance that almost turned a humiliating defeat into a memorable victory.

S. Thomas’ College showed a lot of character in this game and if it is an early indication of their capabilities then they are certain to make a huge impact in the upcoming fixtures of the league tournament.

They will play a total of nine matches during another gruelling inter school season which concludes with the knock out tournament. This includes the traditional matches against Trinity College Kandy, St. Peter’s College, Isipatana College and St. Joseph’s College.

Even then the Thomians will be keen to get some early points in the next couple of games in their attempt to stay alive in the ‘A’ division league championship.

They have already notched up victories in two warm up fixtures against Ananda College (49 nil) and Prince of Wales College Moratuwa (19-5) in addition to their traditional match against the oldboys team.

S. Thomas’ College also had a successful session in the Western Province seven a side tournament where they emerged runners up to Isipatana in the Cup championship.

Last year they experienced mixed fortunes where they were placed fifth in the points table having notched up five victories and three defeats.

But yet they could look back at last year’s performances with a great amount of satisfaction where they were able to register a couple of memorable victories. The best effort probably came in their very first outing where they scored a stunning 22 points to 19 points win over the more fancied St. Peter’s outfit at Mount Lavinia.

They also had the better of Isipatana College (17-15) St. Anthony’s College (14-10), Dharmaraja College (22-20) and Vidyartha College (64 nil). But they had their moments of disappointments too which prevented them from making headway in the league tournament.

They went down to Kingswood College 7-29 and Royal College 5-22 but their biggest setback was the loss to St. Joseph’s College by 15 points to 19 in their traditional encounter.