A right royal pull out

By Harry Jayachandra

In another schools rugby shock Royal, Trinity and S. Thomas’ have decided to skip the President’s Trophy inter school rugby tournament which is scheduled to kick off on September 16.

Secretary of the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Association Rohitha Indunil said that up to now only Royal, Trinity and S. Thomas had pulled out and it is likely that at least one more prominent school also may decide to give this year’s tournament a skip. He added that the deadline for the confirmation of participation in this tournament ends this weekend and the draw will be held early this week.

Principal of Royal Upali Gunasekera speaking to The Sunday Times said “We have not competed in this tournament for the last couple of years.

The Rugby Advisory Committee and the School Board feel that children should be studying at this time of the year. And they also feel that the second leg of the Bradby Shield is effectively the end of the season for Royal.”

Informed sources said that the massive time gap between the end of the league tournament and start of the knockout tournament may have been a contributory factor for the other school’s to pull out.

As stated earlier the draw is yet to be confirmed, but according to Indunil the eight schools that are expected to compete for the President’s Trophy and the Premier Trophy respectively are as follows:

President’s Trophy: Kingswood, St. Peter’s Bambalapitiya, St. Anthony’s Katugastota, Isipatana, Wesley, Thurstan, Ananda and Dharmarajah.

Premier Trophy: St. Joseph’s, Vidyartha, St. Sylvester’s, Zahira, Mahanama, Prince Of Wales, St. Aloysius Galle and Science College.