SAITM ready to scrum for more
View(s):The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) is one of leading private universities in the country that offers a
Captain Dilshan Palihakkara
Vice Captain Dilshan Fernando
number of courses in the medical, engineering, management, technology and arts subjects. The university is also known for promoting sports and other extracurricular activities.
One such sport is rugby, the oldest sport in the university, and with a number of recent victories; the university’s board of management and Sports Council have decided to allocate an annual budget to promote the sport
At present cricket, rugby, badminton, basketball, football and table tennis are the sports available at the university.
“The university’s motto is ‘education with character’ and we believe that sports contribute in a considerable way in building character,” said SAITM’s Master in Charge of Rugby Nimesh Herath.
He said there are about 28-30 rugby players representing all faculties and there is a variation from first year to final year students. The team practices thrice a week at the Royal College Sports Complex.
Three years since the establishment of the rugby unit, this has been SAITM’s best season with six victories. The most recent one came at the annual rugby encounter with APIIT on August 11. SAITM’s rugby team won the match by a score of 12-7.
Coach Theo Serafim practicing with the SAITIM Team
This season they were able to secure a major win against Colombo Law College with a score of 61-0
According to Master in Charge Herath, the rugby team will go on a foreign tour to Thailand at the end of this year. The team will be playing with colleagues from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and other universities.
“It is good news for us that the university’s management has decided to allocate an annual budget for training purposes. This will definitely help us to improve our skills and obtain more training and opportunities to play along with other local and foreign universities,” said Dilshan Palihakkara, (22) the Captain of the SAITM team.
Dilshan, a third year management student has played rugby during his college years at Royal College, Colombo.“SAITM has a recruitment month and those interested can apply. We recruit from all the faculties. The majority of the players are from the medical faculty. For them this is an opportunity to take a break from strenuous study schedules and bond with other faculty students,” he added. Vice Captain Dilshan Fernando (26), a final year medical student, said that he found the game to be extremely stress relieving. The former 
Josephian said that despite commencement of clinical training, he finds at least a day for rugby practices.
“As soon as I got enrolled to the medical faculty, I started playing rugby. I have seen 
the gradual improvement of the sport. At present our games are more with other private universities. We should also have more opportunities to bond with colleagues from local universities too,” he suggested, adding that sports can act as a link between private and local universities, especially bringing medical faculties closer togther.
They thanked their former coaches Chathuranga Hettiarachchi and Akila Perera for their guidance and training during the past three years. Theo Serafim, former Royal rugby coach from Wellington New Zealand, is SAITM’s current coach. -
Nadia Fazlulhaq
Pix by M.A.Pushpakumara
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