President’s trophy schools rugby kicks off next week
By Sachin David
The coveted President’s trophy Schools rugby knock out tournament kicks off on Sunday under the initiative of Schools Rugby Football Association with sponsorship of Milo.
The Milo President’s trophy is the Sri Lanka schools knockout tournament where the top eight schools of the recently concluded rugby league are scheduled to take part.
Unfortunately with the league winners Royal College pulling out of the tournament with no apparent reason the tournament will not see the best eight teams taking part.
The tournament is scheduled to kick off on the 18th of September with the 1st quarterfinal where Isipathana will face off against arch rivals Thurstan at the Royal Complex.
On the same day Kingswood will take on St. Anthony’s College at Nittawela in the 2nd quarterfinal. On the 19th St. Peters will play Science in the 3rd quarterfinal at Royal whilst Trinity will play Dharmaraja at Nittawela on the same day.
The Semifinals will be played on the 23rd and 24th of October at the Royal sports complex with the Finals on the 30th at the same venue.
Last year’s tournament was not decided due to a court order taken out by Isipathana College which prevented the Final from being played and therefore S.Thomas’ College are the last winners of the tournament but are not taking part in the tournament to defend it.
St. Peters, Isipathana and Kingwood College have held the trophy four times with Thurstan, Royal and S. Thomas’ winning the coveted trophy once.
Nestle Lanka Assistant Vice President Corporate Affairs and Communication Bandula Egodage said Milo has been supporting rugby for many years now and will be there to support the sport when ever support is needed.
The President of the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Union Ranjith Chandrasekara expressed his thanks to Nestle Lanka Plc.
For their continued support of the sport, he continued stating “As far as I can recall Milo has supported Sri Lanka schools sports,” he added.Chandrasekara also said that the 2011 tournament will go through without any hiccups like last year and the organizers have taken necessary precautions to prevent any issues. “If any issues do come up we will resolve them immediately,” SLSRFA Chief assured.
