New kids in the block. But now they have become giant killers. (Pic by Ranjith Perera)

“I had given the boys a defensive strategy. We made one mistake and our opponents scored. At half time when we were down by seven points to three, I just told the lads to mark three particular players and not make even one mistake. This they executed to perfection and as result we won the game,” said the coach of CWW Kannangara MMV’s under 18 team Asela Deshapriya.

Named after the father of free education in Sri Lanka, these boys from Borella caused arguably the upset of this decade when they defeated St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya by ten points to seven in a league match. This was in the All Island Under 18 inter school rugby sevens tournament which was held at the Royal College Sports Complex last weekend.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Deshapriya added; “We started playing rugby on a consistent basis only in 1996. In 1988 we played for one season and stopped. When we restarted, we began at the under 13 level. Beating St. Peter’s is our biggest achievement to date. We qualified for the Cup Quarter Finals, but unfortunately we conceded a try to Wesley in the last 30 seconds. Otherwise we would have made it to the semi finals.”

Captain of the team and stand off Rishan Premage who put over a drop goal and made the crucial conversion said; “We have been playing together from the under 13 age group onwards. My father is a spray painter. Most of the parents of the boys in the team earn a daily wage. Thus we do not get any additional nutritional supplements. In addition to the old boys, the people who help us are our Principal D. Maithiripala Silva, Prefect of Games M.K.D. Chandrasiri and Mistress in Charge of rugby Sagarika Kulatunge. The best we can do is one set of boots and one set of jerseys.”

When questioned as to what they critically needed, Deshapriya said; “The basic things like scrum bags, mouth guards and we urgently need to develop our ground. We do have talented players who with the proper guidance could one day make it to the highest level. The best two examples I can give you are our captain and the second centre Rohan Samuel who incidentally scored the try against St. Peter’s. There is only so much the old boys and the school can do. That is why we desperately need a sponsor.
Added Deshapriya; “There are a lot of good ruggerites in this school. I myself am a old boy who played for CWW Kannangara, played for Petersons, got my qualification as a level two coach and came back here because I believe in this team as does my assistant Y. M. Shirantha Jayalath and our under 20 coach Ajith Fernando who also has a level two certificate.”

Said Deshapriya in conclusion;” This was not a fluke victory by any stretch of imagination. In the Singer league tournament we lost only to Zahira and St. Benedicts in Segment ‘C’. That is why I said if we had a sponsor we could really move up the ladder and make our mark.”
Any takers?T