St. Joseph’s Rugby broke a 15-year hoodoo on 21st March beating their arch-rivals, St. Peter’s and now, they are capable of many more astonishing feats in the 2015 Schools Rugby season as the Blue & White Hornets are aiming for nothing less than the league title.
History
Rugby was started way back in 1954 among few rugby aficionados’ and then the unofficial Josephian rugby team was known as the ‘Hornets’. In 1955, Rugby officially became a sport at Darley Road. Chrishanth Fernando led the Josephian rugby team in 1954 and the first Josephian rugby captain was Mahendra Dias in 1955.
Josephian rugby produced many great players in the past such as late Major Gen. Janaka Perera, brothers Nalin and Shamin Perera, Dinuk De. S.Wijeratne and former Sri Lanka Rugby captain Anton Benedict. In the recent past, Josephian rugby was on the rise with players like Dhanushka ‘Gertha’ Perera, Pium Jayasinghe and Rehan Thiyagarajah performing exceptionally well. Since 2009, St. Joseph’s College has played in the top league of Sri Lanka Schools Rugby.
Current Season
Josephians started their preparations way back since October last year under their revamped coaching staff enriched with a little bit of ‘Royal’ touch. They went through hours of gym and weights training since then to get in shape for a prosperous season. The best day after 15 years in Joes Rugby came when they outclassed their arch-rivals St. Peter’s College by 17-10 points last week.
Driving Force
One of the best flankers going around in the schools circuit, Taariq Salih is the Captain of the Josephian outfit and he will be playing in the number 8 position this season. Hard tackler and fierce competitor he will bring his leadership skills to the game this time around and he is pitted as the most-important wheel in the Josephian drive.
The two vice-captains, Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya and Shehan Bopearachchi will add great value and experience into the Josephian side. Shamilka is a gifted full back with a variety of tricks under his sleeve and he can sneak through any defense with his effective counter attacking play while he will also serve as the place-kicker of the side. Shehan will play as a Flanker as he is a tireless tackler while his speed and agility makes him a potent weapon in the breakdowns.
St. Joseph’s is known to produce quality and well-built prop forwards. This year they will have the services of beastly Stephan Gregory who is a man mountain and he is undoubtedly one of the strongest rugby players in the current Schools Rugby circuit and the big prop will be the main ball carrier for St. Joseph’s together with his partner-in-crime, Charana Sendanayake who moved to the front row after playing in the second row last year.
Vimukthi Rahula has also made a positional change this year as he will start in the outside center position this season. He has the ability to find any small gap in the opponent’s defense while he is a safeguard option in both attack and defense for the Blue & White Hornets and the other player expected to make a big impression is the wing-three quarter, Romesh Priyankara also known as ‘Cheetah’. He is fast and a quickly developing try-scoring machine for St. Joseph’s.
The men behind the scene
Experienced campaigner Bilal Yousuf will be the head coach and Asanka Rodrigo have been given in-charge of the backs this year and both ex-Royal coaches together with forwards coach, former Royal prop Ashane Dissanayake. One of the best kickers ever to play for Sri Lanka, Nalaka Weerakkody is the kicking coach of the College by the Beira Lake. All the coaches have done a tremendous job in molding a stunning outfit which can be league champions if they can play to their true potential. The Rugby Advisory Committee has also done a wonderful job in uplifting standards in Joes Rugby and creating a culture among all fans.
In their own words
“The boys have put in lot of hard work during last 6 months. They are still gelling as a unit but they have gained tremendous confidence and momentum after their win over St. Peter’s College. We are planning to take each and every game on its merits. “Head Coach, Bilal Yousuf gave his exclusive thoughts to www.thepapare.com.
“Our training was intense. We focused mainly on our mistakes which we did last year and we are hoping to rectify them as soon as possible. We want to be the Champions this year’confident Josephian skipper Taariq Salih spoke few words with www.thepapare.com.
Full Squad
Props- Stephan Gregory, Charana Sendanayake, Kevin Silva, Sven Muller.
Hookers – Devon Fernando, Senel Fernando, Praveen Thangiah.
Second Row – Ishane Pietersz, Ravien De Silva, Tishan Jayasinghe.
Flankers – Viraj Perera, Shehan Bopearachi, Sonel Silva.
Number 8 – Taariq Salih
Scrum Half – Suneth Chathuranga
Fly Half – Dulith Fernando, Raveen Antonio
Centers – Vimukthi Rahula, Sameesha Viranga, Gemunu Chethiya.
Wingers – Romesh Priyankara, Vinul Fernando, Ayomal Perera, Lakitha Fernando, Naveen Muthuarachchi, Kevin De Silva.
Full Back – Shamilka Kurumabalapitiya.
St.Joseph’s College Coach Bilal Yousuf – Schools Rugby 2015
St.Joseph’s College Captain Taariq Salih
