Kingswood going great guns in rugby – By Hafiz Marikar

Kingswood College, Kandy, the first school in the country to play rugger,then known as Kandy Boy’s High School, took to the game due to the efforts of a Trinitian L.E. Blaze , the founder principal of the school in 1891

Subsequently the interest for rugby increased in popularity the first rugger fixture was between Trinity College and Kingswood on 11th day of August 1906 at Bogambara Grounds, and resulted in an exciting 6 all draw. This was the first-ever inter-school rugby game to be played in the country. After a few years after this game Kingswood gave up the game, because of a player dying on the field.,The game was reintroduced to the school in 1965 with an Under 17 team. , so the game went on and in the 1980’s, during the coaching of Z.M. Zarook a product of Vidyartha College, they started doing well. The first trophy the Kingswoodians won in rugby was the Tyrell Muttiah Memorial Tophy in 1981, where they emerged “B division champions and in the following year, were promoted to “A” division.

In their first year in the “A” division under the captaincy of Malik Weerasinghe Kingswood won nine matches out of eleven, losing to St.Anthony’s College and Wesley College, that season. They amassed 301 points against 52 points But the finest moment was when Kingswood clinched the Philip Buultjens Trophy by emerging as schools sevens champions. In five games in the Sevens Tournament Kingswood scored 112 points and gave away 4 points.

Kingswood beat St. Anthony’s College 32-0, Lumbini College 38-0, Maliyadeva College 24-0, Isipathana College 10-4. In the final Kingswood beat S., Thomas’ College by 8 points to nil. IIn 1987, Kingswood had an excellent season, winning nine out of ten matches and also entered the R. Premadasa trophy Knock-out tournament by beating Science College in the quarter-finals, but in the semis they went down to Trinity College by 11 points to 6 after leading 5-3 at lemons.

After taking up the game for the second time, Kingswood produced some fine players who made the school and Kandy proud, There are some Kingswoodians who hit the top at rugby, without playing for the school. Two names that come to my mind are Iqbal Jumar, better known in the hockey circles played for CR and FC, then the best out of all was Owen Mottau the first Kingswoodian to play for the country. He started his rugby at Dimbula ACC, later played for Up-Country. the others are Jerome Gray, Kamil “Roy”Amith, Lalith Wijeratne, Mahinda Serasinghe, Kenneth de Silva, A.T.Walisundara, Raja Ibrahim, Roy Ibrahim,Ronnie Ibrahim, Rinne Ibrahim, Nilufer Ibrahim, Dunstan de Silva, Nalin Ranasinghe, Ananda Kasturiarchchi, Jeewa Galgamuwa, Senaka Bandara, Chamara Vithanage, , Gemanu Silva, L.H.Wahab, PalithaAbeyasiriwardene, T.M.N. Sherifdeen, Parakrama Samaraweera, Keerthi Walisundara, Somasiri Perera, R. Premawansa,Thusitha de Silva,, Amal.Sampathge. The finest goal kicker was Nalaka Weerakoddy who was a fine place, drop and long distance kicker, Chamara de Silva, S.A.Muthumala, A.S.Nagapitiya, Roshan Weeraratne, Gayan Weeraratne, Eranda Weerakoddy Amjad Buksh,Anju Buksh, twins Oshan and Lavanga Perera, Rizmeer Jabar. M. Akram, Malith Hettiarchchi, Eranda Jayalath, Heshan Kalhara, Fazil Marija a top clas fly half and today a good coach.