No sport exuberates more passion and ferocity as the school rugby in Sri Lanka. Beating almost any other game in intensity, the schools league puts forth a vicious battle each season.
The competition grows fever pitch and the players literally shed blood, sweat, tears and sometimes limb for the love of churning up the best for their alma mater. Based on this passion, ThePapare’s rugby reporters came up with ThePapare All Star where the stars of the season go up against each other in a mouth-watering proposition of the best of schools rugby on display.
The inaugural battle of the Kandy Red vs the Colombo Blues took place in all its grandeur at the CR&FC where the Colombo Blues skippered by Thomian center three-quarter Shaveen Kapuwatte while the Kandy Reds were led by Kingswood full back Ranjitha Sansoni. The match lived up to all its expectations and the epic battle in the middle culminated with a win by the lads from Colombo who managed to pull off a comprehensive win over their rivals 36 points to 17.
The 2011 battle proved bigger and better with school boy stars in the likes of Sankha Rajaguru (SACK), Murad Ramzeen (TCK), Devinda Prasad (IC) and Shehan Pathirana (RC) took stage. Rajaguru and Ramzeen captained the team from Kandy while 2011’s undisputed Royal skipper Shehan ‘Lema’ Pathirana marshaled the Colombo team though Devinda Prasad led the Blues on to the field.
ThePapare All star rugby encounter returns after a lapse of two years and has planned to top their previous ventures. The encounter has been the stepping stone for young school boy rugby players who have been able to showcase themselves and catapult in to the club and national sides hence. A total of thirteen players who were featured in ThePapare All Star have gone one to represent the national teams (both sevens and fifteens) namely, 2010 ThePapare’s Most Popular Schoolboy Rugby Player of the year Sudharshana Muththantri, St. Peters ‘gun’ three-quarter Danushka Ranjan, former national under 19 skipper Shenal Dias, 2010 league winning skipper Keith Gurusinghe, Peterite second rower and specialist jumper Soyuru Anthony, Thomian center Anurudda Wilvara, Royal College flyer Chamara Dhabare, Peterite try scoring machine Sandun Herath, 2011 league winning Royal captain Shehan Pathirana, Kingswood’s dynamic duo Oshan and Lavanga Perera, the hill country giant Heshan Kalhara, and Mr reliable Rehan Weerakoon.
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