The ANC rugby team has become a scintillating outfit amongst the private college teams with several thrilling wins in its list of achievements. Formed just this year, the team has managed to shove its way to victory in games played against seasoned players. Due to its promising performance, ANC rugby plans on entering the club rugby tournaments by registering in the club "B" Divisions next season.

The ANC rugby team was formed in July when the College received an invitation to participate in a Rugby Sevens tournament organized by ICBT, Kandy. Presidant of the ANC Sports Club, Pandula Gunaratne took the initiative in forming a team for the sevens.

According to Pandula, at the time, the College had only a tap rugby team that played at the ANC Sports Day in April. "Although we had only played tap rugby, we decided to form a rugby team to participate in the ICBT sevens. We approached students who already had experience in school rugby and also asked interested students to join the team," Pandula said explaining the formation of the first ANC rugby team.
The young lads managed to win the plate championship at the tournament. Achieving this feat with just a few days of practice, the team was encouraged to pursue the game more seriously. "We did not have any serious practice sessions and we were finding it difficult to find students to form the team as well," Pandula said.

Pumped up by winning the plate championship at the ICBT sevens, the young lads continued to train under coach Trevor Nugawela at the CH club grounds with the blessings of ANC. Next the team participated in the rugby sevens organized by the Western Province Rugby Football Union in August. The ANC rugby team became the plate runner up at the tournament.

Following the success at the Kandy sevens and WPRFU sevens, more ANC students wanted to join the emerging champs. The ANC rugby pool currently consists of close to 40 students. Founder captain Pandula said the ANC team received an invitation to play against the Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club on August 23.

The ANC beat Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club (DMCC) 14 points (2 goals) to 12 (1 goal, 1 try) in a thrilling Rugby encounter held at the Darrawela grounds, Dickoya. Although the Dickoya planters led 12-0 at the halfway mark, the ANC team put up an impressive performance in the second half to steal the game by two points.

On October 2, the ANC team managed to record an impressive win against the Puffins Rugby Football Club. The ANC stars stole the game from a team of experienced rugby players by winning the game 34-0.

After the impressive performance by the ANC team against the DMCC in Dickoya, the DMCC requested for a second match in Colombo. The second match was played at the Colombo University grounds on October 9. The ANC team managed to win the game 29-27.

This game however was the last match played by Pandula who was instrumental in getting the ANC rugby team formed and to a formidable side. Pandula handed over the captaincy to winger Rishitha Peiris.

The ANC team is coached by Mr. Trevour Nugawela, who works tirelessly to improve the performance of the team. The new ANC rugby captain, Rishitha said the team was focusing on becoming a formidable 15 team. "We want to register in the club B division to play in the next season," he said. Rishitha is confident of a strong performance by the ANC rugby team during the next season.

The path to victory on the rugby field is not easy, but the ANC team is full of confidence, ready to add to its already impressive list of achievements.