“Packed grounds with thousands of people, when the school players were a part of main league teams, times where A division spot is guaranteed but winning the league was the AIM, easily 35 players fighting their souls off to get a place in playing 15, certainly Zahira College has lost their glory days”
Having played the game of rugby for more than 90 years and being one of the four schools in Sri Lanka to play rugby before the 2nd world war, Zahira College hasn’t been able to taste the top division Rugby for more than a decade now. Zahira College was crowned as the champions of schools Rugby in 1962 beating St Peters, Royal and Trinity College. Zahira has been playing A division rugby ever since they started playing rugby in 1930’s till the year 2002. Sadly, 2003 turned out to be a pathetic year for rugby when they were massively defeated by all the top schools in Sri Lanka and were demoted to B Division, ever since that year it’s never raised its head.
The last fruitful incidents happened in the year 1998 when Zahira won the Under 19 R Premadasa knockouts tournaments ( Presidents Trophy) beating Thurstan College under the captaincy of Riyaz Hanis and in the year 2000 under the captaincy of Ramshan Cuncheer when Zahira College won the Under-19 , 10a Side A Division MILO Championship beating Kingswood College Kandy in the finals 13-00 at the Havelock Grounds.
The school in Maradana has produced many stars including the likes of, Abdul Majeed, Tony Amith, Nalim Saleem, , Omar Sheriff, Ibrahim Hameed, AHA Samad, Kuthdoos Dorey, Hisham Abdeen,etc. In recent years , Rizan Saldin, Azad Junkeer, M. J. Mushtaq , Ishan Noor, too had the opportunity to wear the national jersey and managed to secure the top level of rugby in Sri Lanka. A constellation of amazing Zahirian stars but Abdul Majeed being regarded as the best of them, for he had the brilliant opportunity to lead the Sri Lankan team against Team England in 1971.
Zahira is one of the oldest Rugby playing schools in Sri Lanka alongside Kingswood, Trinity and Royal. Surprisingly, the bitter truth is that all the other three schools are playing in the top division and dominating the field while Zahira is waiting for a miracle to happen, at least this season. The Coaches, Consultants, Officials, Old Boys, Parents and the players are working towards one dream, one dream of getting the GOLDEN ERA OF RUGBY back in Zahira College.
Zahira played their first match of this season against Vidyartha College Kandy in Bogambara stadium and it was a successful visit for the Zahirians winning the match 13-05 in their home soil. Captain Azeem took the honours of the game scoring two penalties and converting Wajid Fahmy’s try. The remaining fixtures are as follows:
St Johns Nugegoda – 28th of March at the Science College Grounds
Mahanama College- 7th of April at Cr & FC
DS Senanayake College – 24th of April at Zahira College Grounds
Nalanda College – 8th of May at Zahira College Grouds
Presently, the boys are very confident that they will be able to drive Zahira to the top division this season.
This year the team is very well balanced with seniors taking a bigger portion. The team is led by a 3rd year colours Azeem Azmy who plays as the full back, his assistant is Ramzan Amit . The team is coached by Bimal Perera and Anil jayasinghe , the team consultant is Shamly Nawaz , Fitness trainer is Karunaratne . President of the Zahira College sports council Mohamed Mazeer, Rugby Chairman Riza Abdeen and his team are doing a fantastic job to bring the glory back with the supportive old Zahirians.
