Kingswood College, the first school to play rugby, has a proud rugby history. This year they are hard at training and will play their first game on Thursday against St. Joseph’s College at Havelock Park. This time Center-three-quarter Gihan Ranaweera will lead the side, prop forward Eshara Dissanayke is the Vice Captain and they have another experienced player Imanka Ishan the scrum half of the side. They are being well guided in the coaching field and should give their best
Buddhika Thalagampola is the head coach who started his schooling at Magammana Junior school from there he moved to Ruwanwella Central and later joined Isipathana College and was under the coaching of S.W. Chang and played for the senior side from 2000 to 2002. His club career started with CR and FC and later for Kandy SC and also was a national player. He is a qualified World Rugby Level two accredited coach. He had a short coaching stint with Trinity College and Isipathana College before moving to Kandy SC. He has given his best for the Kingswoodains as coach. He played for CR and FC, Kandy SC and played for the national 15 a side team from 2003 t0 2004, sevens in 2004. Roshan Weeraratne another top player and good rugby follower is the assistant coach withNadun Abeyasooriya.
Since 1980, Kingswood has been doing well in rugby and won the Tyrell Muttiah trophy and in the same year emerged Schools ‘B’ division champions. That was the start of their uplift and the man who guided them was Z.M. Zarook. Then in 1981,Kingswood were promoted to the ‘A’ division and ended up fourth in the Gratiaen Cup. In 1987, they had an excellent season, winning nine out of ten matches and also entered the R. Premadasa Knock-out tournament and went down to Trinity College by 11 points to 6 after leading 5-3 at lemons.
In 1986, too they had a successful season winning nine out of 14 matches and drawing one game. Out of all the best years in their rugby for the Randles Hills boys, was the year they remained unbeaten in 1988 in seven matches and won the Schools Rugby Sevens In the recent past, Kingswood has been at the top and in the year 2000, won the President’s Trophy for the first time under the captaincy of Chamara Vithanage. Beating the Thomians30-26 Then in 2003, 2004 and 2005 they won the President’s Trophy. They also emerged Singer A division League champions in 2008, Seven of their players were picked to play for the Sri Lanka Youth Team in 2005.
There are some ruggerites who have brought honour and fame to the school. They are Owen Mottau who was one of the finest full backs Sri Lanka had at that time. He played for Dimbula for several years and for the country, then Iqbal Jumar played for CR & FC both of them earned a name in rugby, but never played for the school. Later players of the calibre of Rohan de Silva, Lalith Wijeratne, Tissa Wijeratne,Jerome Gray, Mahinda Serasinghe, Parakrama Samaraweera, Kenneth de Silva,Dunstan de Silva, T.M.N. Sherifdeen, Roy Kamil Amith, Palitha Wijesuriya,Ananda Kasthuriarchchi, Jeewa Galgamuwa, Senaka Bandara, Amjad and Ansar Buksh,Chamara Vithanage, Ibrahim brothers Raja, Ronnie, Rizvi, Nilufer, Dev Anand,Nalaka Weerakkoddy, M. Fazal, Fazil Marija, Tilina Weerasinghe, R. Raheem, R.Samaratunga, S. Weerasinghe,N. Ranasighe, T de Silva, L. Premawansa, L.M.Wahab, Chamara de Silva, Sameera Wijesinghe, I.B. Galagoda, Eranda.Weerakkoddy, Navin Wijaratne, Roshan Weeraratne,Gayan Weeraratne, RizaRaffaideen, to name a few.
Today their key game is with Wesley College for the L E. Blaze trophy which was presented by the famous Kingswoodian Roy de Silva.
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