by Sankha Tennekoon

Prince of Wales College Moratuwa (POW) will come out with all guns blazing this year as they enter the “A” division for the first time in there rugby history. Prince of Wales College Moratuwa and Wesley Colege have fought their way in to the “A” Division while Mahanama College and St.Josephs College drop down to the”B” Division.

Rugby has gone to the outer skirts of Colombo, thus more and more teams are coming up to the big stage. Last season POW ended their campaign in the Division one group ‘B’ category behind the unbeaten Wesley team. The lads from Moratuwa finished their run with 38 tries and 19 goals.

Rugby has gained popularity in POW during the last few years and rugby is now considered to be one of their top sports along with cricket. There have been a number of players who have gone on to play for the forces during the last decade.

This year Prince of Wales goes in against the big guns with eight colorsman in their ranks. Parakum Weerasinghe will lead the POW team this year. He has been a part of the team for three years and this will be his fourth and final year. Parakum will take the lead role in the line, playing in at center and will be a huge force in the middle. His deputy, Dinuka Hettiarachchi will man the last line of defense playing at full back. Dinesh played a vital part in last season’s success with his brilliant skills at the back. He together with skipper Parakum ran circles around the opposition to take them to second place in the ‘B’ division category. Dinesh’s clearance kicks were a main part of the POW defense.The halves combination of Ashen and Kalinda too played an imperative role in the POW attack last year. Fly half Ashen was also in brilliant form during the 2009 season.  A lot of tries were subject to some brilliant play by Ashen who mesmerized the opposition in the league and knock out tournament. Apart from the four senior men, there are four more senior players in the side. Gayeshan – Second Row, Randika Alwis – flanker, Randika Warnapura- Wing three, Enod – number eight.

Last year’s skipper Dushan Onnantharam did his school proud when he represented the Sri Lankan under 19 team which speaks volumes of their capabilities as a top rugby team. Another product of Prince of Wales College was senior national team player Nilusha Fernando.

This year’s team will be coached by an old boy himself, Preethi Kumar. The Trainer for the POW will be Rohan Fernando.

Preethi Kumar did a terrific job with the team last year and now has an even bigger challenge in front of him that is to stay in the top league. The POW coach believes that his team has what it takes to compete with the big guns and stay in the “A” division for the long run. He also added that, during most seasons the same teams that get promoted to “A” Division get demoted the following year as was the case with Mahanama College and St.Josephs College in 2009, but he hopes to make 2010 a different case.   .

Preethi Kumar also pointed out that this particular team had done particularly well when they were playing junior rugby. He also said that there success at junior level a few years back will be one of the main motivating factors when they come up with the big boys this year.

When asked if they have targeted any particular schools in the ‘A’ league Preethi Fernando had this to say, “We will be up against the defending league champions Royal College Colombo in our first outing. We’re going to take it match by match. We cannot plan out the entire season, but we will mainly target the newcomers to the ‘A’ division Wesley College and teams like St.Anthonys College who have not been performing well during the last couple of season”.

When asked what kind of support the team gets from school and other unions, Preethi Fernando said, “the master in charge Susantha Mendis and the principle Rohana Karunaratne have been a tower of strength for the boys and they have helped in every way possible.” He also added that there is a lot of support coming in from the school but still they have been subjected to lack of funds which ultimately leads to lack of equipments and quality jersey’s etc.

“Our main target is to somehow stay in the ‘A’ division next year. They are tough boys who come from different walks of life. We don’t have money to buy them supplements”.  They settle for a drink of water instead and train hard”. He also said that his team has a lot of heart and they put their body on the line for the sake of the school, and that’s what will make them a competitive force in the ‘A’ division this year.