Neutral venues for Schools Knockouts; St. Anthony’s & Dharmaraja included

The Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association has decided to go with neutral venues for the upcoming Milo President’s Knock-outs trophy that is set to kick off on the 9th of June 2017.

After 11 weeks of exciting action, six teams from the cup championship and two teams from the plate segment will lock horns in lieu of the silverware. Organised by the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) the tournament is set to commence on the 9th of June with the quarterfinal games and is set to conclude on the 24th of June with the all important finals.

Milo knockout finals postponed

The Milo President’s trophy final between Royal College and Isipathana College which was scheduled to…

The organisers have made it clear to play the games only at a neutral venue after the dispute that occurred last year over the games being played at the Royal Complex. This resulted in the final match getting postponed and later being played at Racecourse.

Therefore the quarterfinal matches will be played at the newly resurfaced Sugathadasa Stadium while the semifinals and finals will be played at Racecourse.

Six teams from the cup segment; Royal, Isipathana, Trinity, Wesley, St. Joseph’s and St. Peter’s will compete on a knockout basis with the top two teams from the plate division. Only the top six teams of the cup championship will be included while the top two from the plate championship are taken to the draw. The winners from the plate St. Anthony’s and runners-up Dharmaraja will be in the draw and will play alongside the top six in the cup segment.

Know how the teams finished in the league

This means last year’s semifinalists S. Thomas’ & quarterfinalists Zahira College will not be playing in this year’s draw.

Defending champions, Isipathana College will have a lot at stake having already given away the league title to Royal and will go all out to retain the other title they won last year.

Read what happened in last year’s semifinal

The final last year saw Royal and Isipathana battling each other at Racecourse and at the conclusion of 80 minutes of play it were the Green Machines who registered a comprehensive 47-12 victory.

Read about last year’s triumph

This year’s race for the President’s trophy should be an interesting contest based on the competitiveness of the teams that played the recently concluded league. Newly crowned league title winners, Royal College will be eyeing to add another trophy to their cabinet this season while Trinity College will be looking for redemption in this coming series.

Wesley, St Joseph’s and St. Peter’s will be equally looking forward to the fixture that gives them the second chance to try their luck in getting a title for their respective teams.

The Josephians and the Peterites should be in fine tune after their recent performances in the concluding weeks of the league and will be looking to fire all guns in the quarterfinals.

St. Anthony’s and Dharmaraja who missed out the cup championship after their disappointing performance in the first round will be the ones that are looking forward to playing in the knockout competition since they have some unfinished business to deal with before the season concludes.

The tournament will be worked out in a round-robin format and the quarterfinals, semifinals and the finals will be played during a lapse of three weeks. As of now, all eight teams have confirmed their participation.

The draw and fixtures for the tournament will be as follows: