Thurstan College with a combination of youth and experience will be targeting an ‘A’ Division promotion with an outstanding performance during the current Inter-Schools Under-20 League Rugby Tournament.
They are currently competing in the ‘B’ Division League Tournament and are very much in contention to finish on top of Group-2 having already recorded back-to-back victories against Ananda College (29-10) and Sri Sumangala College, Kandy (37-36) respectively.
The significant feature in these performances was that they were able to collect a bonus point in each game, which will be of great advantage for them to stay ahead of the other teams in the end.
However, last week they suffered a major setback when they went down against D. S. Senanayake 7-24 on their home grounds, which was also their annual encounter played for the Graetian Gunawardhana Challenge Trophy.
But Thurstan bounced back into recognition in their next outing as they pulled off a morale boosting 39-10 bonus-point victory against St. Benedict’s College on their home grounds on Saturday.
They have another fixture in this group against St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy and will certainly look to complete their preliminary round matches on a winning note.
History records that Thurstan began playing rugby in 1957 but their ascendancy to the big league was in 1963, where they enjoyed one of the finest seasons with a historic win over Royal College at the University Grounds.
In the late nineties, Thurstan rose in the schools’ rugby arena and in 1997 Thurstan registered two superb wins over Royal and S. Thomas’ to reach the final of the President’s Trophy only to lose out to Isipathana in the final. But in the following year, Thurstan made amends as they were able to topple Isipathana after 35 years and went on to clinch the President’s Trophy for the first time under the Captaincy of Nuwan Kumara.
This year the Thurstan First XV Rugby Team will be Captained by fourth year coloursman Binath Perera, who will play as flanker in the third row while the other flanker Arindu Silva is the Vice-Captain.
Meanwhile, prop forward Ashan de Silva is another experienced player and will be representing the First XV side for the third successive year.
Thurstan also boast a few promising newcomers in the First XV side, who have been playing junior rugby for quite some time.
Thurstan enjoyed a splendid season in 2019 where they reached the Premier Trophy Knock-Out Tournament final before their clash against Lumbini MV had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
On their way to the final, they defeated Prince of Wales College (53-0) in the semi-final, St. Sylvester’s (16-14) and Mahanama College (24-20) before going down to C. W. W. Kannangara MMV by a solitary point (12-13) on their home grounds.
Meanwhile, Thurstan have retained the services of former Air Force Sports Club, Up-Country Lions SC, CH and FC and CR and FC player Sasanka Ariyaratne as their Head Coach and Trainer for the 2022 rugby season. In fact, Ariyaratne captained Thurstan in 2007 and played as a fearless
flanker for the team. In addition, ex-Sri Lanka, CH and FC and Navy SC player Samuel Maduwantha will be the kicking coach and another ex-Sri Lanka and Navy SC player Kosala Madushan will oversee the back division and he will be assisted by former Thurstanite Chamod Perera.