TEAM WORK , PASSION, COMMITMENT, DETERMINATION“At Isipathana rugby is a passion. The students play tap rugby using mango seeds during the interval”
THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO ALL WHO LOVES ISIPATHANA RUGBY !!!
Isipathana College Colombo formerly known as Greenlands College have niched itself a name as the most feared rugby playing team in the schools arena. They are tagged as the Kings of Schools Rugby which they have maintained since the school started playing the game in 1963. In fact they took to rugby in the year 1960 led by Randy Keller playing friendly games at under 17 level. Rugby at Isipathana they say began with Randy Keller who was an ardent spectator at all the matches that his father played for Havelock SC. His enthuasism persisted some of the senior players to have a go with the result today the Isipathanians are masters at rugby. Their first senior team to come out was in the year in 1963 which was led by Bryan Ingram which was coached by the late Y.C. Chang and the first major game was against St Anthony's College Katugastota which they came out victorious defeating their opponents by 8-3. They sounded a warning to the teams which were playing rugby and since then they have never looked back and have maintained their supremacy and lived upto their name as the Kings of Schools Rugby. Though their first win was in 1963, it was only in 1965 that the school was officially affliated to the SLRFU's schools. Since that unforgettable day which has now reached the four decade mark the Isipathanians have won exactly 53 trophies upto the last zahira invitational 7,s' tournament which concluded in july 2009. The trophies that they have won in the junior level are not included here. But the most wonderful part is that they have achieved all these without a ground of their own.
According to statistics available only Royal and S. Thomas' Mt Lavinia are near them with 13 trophies a piece followed by Trinity with seven. The three schools mentioned have a long history of rugby behind them.Just like winning the School have produced 51 national players for the past four decades. The first player to play for the national team was Randy Pietersz from there on the list goes on with many of them captaining the national team. An astonishing record for a school. Another special feature is that the school has won all the trophies which were on offer for the first time. They have anexed the league title on 12 occasions. They won the first ever school's 7's tournament which was held in 1969. Since then they have won the 7's trophy which was played for the Philip Bultjens trophy ten times including four in a row. In 1992 they had the distinction of winning six of the seven trophies that were on offer which is a record in schools rugby. In 1997 they bagged the league championship, president's trophy, the sevens and the WP 10's and they repeated the feat in the year 1999. This is a feat that no other school has achieved upto date. They also won the triple crown on five occasions in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1995 and 1997.in 2001 they won the knock out.
in the year 2004 isipathana rugby went into dark waters where they lost all their league matches and were demoted to the b division.nevetherless two years later they were once again in top flight rugby..in 2007 under damith udayanga they won all the 7,s trophies,while emerging runners up in the league and knock out finals vs the st.peters outfit.Last year they emerged as presidents trophy knock-out runners up while they clinched all the 7,s trophies on offer including the singer sri lankan 7,s for the second succesive year.Also the captain dinusha chaturanga and star prodigy sajith saranga went on to represent the national side.The team has become popular year in and year out which paved the way for sponsorships from many individuals like Kishin Butani, Sarath de Costa, Rajasingham Industries and Shutter 2000,suntel and ole. They are grateful to them not forgetting H.T. de Silva, Jayantha Fernando and his band of Old Peterites, Frankie David, Michael Loos, Y.C. Chang and also present chairmen of the rugby development committee mr Hasan Singhawansa who nurtured rugby at Isipatahana. Isipathana's achievement at rugby despite the many obstacles it has to face even at present with the lack of their own playground being the biggest has not deterred them from marching forward.they are truly kings of schools rugby!!!
