Defending champions of the Under 16 10’s All Island Schools’ Rugby Championship, Trinity College, will go in as favorites for this year’s tournament that starts this week (4th & 5th August) at their home grounds Pallekale Stadium and Digana Stadium.
The All-Island competition organized by the Sri Lanka Schools’ Rugby Football Association will feature 32 schools, competing in 8 groups with the winner of each group qualifying to play in the Cup quarter finals. The losers of the Cup quarter finals will compete in the Plate semi-finals. This will also be a tournament in which the coaches get to have a look at the under 16 lads who will be potentials for the first XV jerseys in the years to come.
Two teams crowned U16 Champions
The conclusion of the postponed Wesley vs Dharmaraja U16..
Isipathana College is a contender eyeing the trophy, not having tasted victory for sometime now. St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s and Royal College are strong contenders as well finishing on the top four of the concluded group stages in the league that ran parallel to the Singer School’s Rugby League. Hence this year’s tournament is expected to be far more competitive than the previous year’s.
Last year’s Final encounter saw the Trinity under 16 Rugby team making their mark against a strong Kingswood side. Another strong contender in the under 16 segments should be Kingswood College who were crowned runner’s up in the last year tournament and also made it to the semi-finals in the 2016 edition. An added advantage would be that some of the key first XV players being eligible to take part in the tournament.
Read: Unbeaten Trinity crowned Under 16 Champions
