Trinity College Kandy will host S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in the Lion’s den at Pallekale Rugby stadium on Saturday, 7th of April as the two teams battle it out for the Canon R.S. De Saram Trophy.
Having not had the best of seasons thus far in the Singer Schools Rugby League, the Thomians will be travelling to Kandy with hopes of regaining the trophy in which they gave away 29 points to 14 last year.
Trinity College and S. Thomas’ College have been frontrunners of the oval ball game in the country and officially met for the first time in the history in 1955. Trinity was the first to win the encounter while it took a further four years for S. Thomas’ to register their first win of the series, in the year 1959.
The coveted shield was first awarded in the year 1978 in memory of the former warden of S. Thomas’, Reginald Stewart de Saram who initiated the encounter during his tenure.
In the recorded history of the two schools, there have been 65 occasions where the two teams have locked horns in total since 1955, out of which 37 encounters have been won by Trinity while the lads from Mount Lavinia have been victorious on 26 occasions. Two matches have been tied while in 1971 the match was not played.
Since the initiation of the Canon De Saram trophy, Trinity College leads the tally with 23 wins while S. Thomas’ trail behind with 17 wins in the 40 encounters since 1978.
History:
| YEAR | SCORES | CAPTAINS |
| 2004 | STC 15 (3T)
TCK 21 (3T 2P) |
STC – Dillon Fox
TCK – Ayaz Ainaff |
| 2005 | STC 5 (1T)
TCK 17 (3T 1C) |
STC – Namal Rajapaksa,
TCK – B.N.R.Fernando |
| 2006 | STC 00
TCK 12 |
STC – Yoshitha Rajapaksa
TCK – Imalka Maddumapatabendi |
| 2007 | STC 19 (1T 1C 1DG 2P)
TCK 15 (3T) |
STC – Johan Fernando
TCK – Sean Wanigasekara |
| 2008 | STC 10 (1T 1C 1P)
TCK 15 |
STC – Rohitha Rajapaksa
TCK – Milinda Gunawardena |
| 2009 | STC 26 (4T 3C)
TCK 17 (3T 1C) |
STC – Shaveen Kapuwatte
TCK – Vishwajith Wijesinghe |
| 2010 | STC 40 –
TCK 30 (4T 2C 2P) |
STC – Rajinda Guunasekara
TCK – Damith Dissanayake |
| 2011 | STC 06 (2P)
TCK 76 (11T 9C 1P) |
STC – Dinuk Amarasinghe
TCK- Murad Ramzeen TCK) |
| 2012 | STC 21 (3T 1C 2P)
TCK 50 |
STC – Randhika Peiris,
TCK – Kaneel Snevirathne |
| 2013 | STC 29 (2T 2C 1DG 4P)
TCK 15 (3T) |
STC – Devin Jayasinghe
TCK – Halique Wadood |
| 2014 | STC 10 (1T 1C 1P)
TCK 38 (6T 4C) |
STC – Hashaka Senanayake
TCK – Tarinda Ratwatte |
| 2015 | STC 15 (2T 1C 1P)
TCK 40 (5T 3C 3P) |
STC – Hashitha Senanayake
TCK – Isuru Rangala |
| 2016 | STC 23 (3T 1C 1P 1DG)
TCK 20 (3T 1C 1P) |
STC – Pandula De Silva,
TCK – Rahul Karunathilake |
| 2017 | STC 14 (2T 2C)
TCK 29 (5T 2C) |
STC – Naveen Heenakankanamge
TCK – Nathan Chang |
Last Year
Trinity managed to beat the Thomians rather convincingly last year, 29 points to 14, running in 5 tries in response to STC’s 2 at the end of 80 minutes. Trinity, unlike this year, were in the form of their lives, rampaging through opponents throughout the season. Both teams faced off at a point when they were unbeaten last season with Trinity finishing as the dominant team.
This time around Trinity come into the game after consecutive losses while S. Thomas’ have lost all three games in the season and are in danger of sliding down to the Plate segment. Trinity barely got over the line against their home-town rivals St. Anthony’s College Katugasthota 15 points to 10 at Nittawela in their League opener while in the same week S. Thomas’ were run over by the Joes at Havelock Park 33 points to 10. Trinity then faced-off against St Joseph’s and Kingswood next but failed to get over the line. The Thomians were defeated by Kingswood and their arch rivals Royal in their last two games.
The teams play two completely different styles of rugby, making it hard to compare the sides. Trinity love to use their lethal back line as they have the runners and the personnel in their crew to pierce any defense. S. Thomas however will look to put their well-oiled forwards pack to good use.
Trinity skipper Awishka Sheik missed the Lion’s encounter versus Kingswood after losing three teeth during the game against the Joes at home and will hopefully be back for this week’s fixture. His counterpart Christian De Lille has been a one-man army for the Thomians this season, giving his 200% in every ruck and tackle in every game.
Everything standing as it is, Pallekale will be hosting a delectable encounter with both teams in desperate need of a win to stay up in the Cup division, looking to qualify through to the second round of the Singer School’s Rugby tournament.
Trinity will look to get back to winnings ways while S. Thomas won’t give in easily as they have been improving as the season has been progressing. It will be a lower table battle with both teams trying to get their confidence back for the second round.
Stay with ThePapare.com as we bring you live pictures of the 41st Canon De Saram Trophy encounter on the 7th of April from 4pm onwards.
