St. Thomas’ College led by their inspirational Skipper Naveen Henakankanamge, successfully defended their schools rugby 7’s title beating Isipathana College 19-14 in the final at Race course international stadium for a second successive year.

The Thomians booked their spot in the final after beating St. Peter’s College 17-12 in the quarter final after having beaten Trinity College 21-14 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Isipathana College beat Kingswood College in their semi-final 19-14 after beating St Anthony’s College 24-19 in the quarter final.

Isipathana kicked off the final and had a good build up in the first minute, but Dion Dias somehow capitalized on a turn-over and sprinted under the posts for the opening try of the game before knocking over the conversion to give the Thomians a 7-0 lead. Dias was once again instrumental in the second try setting up Mayon Jayawardane who went over to extend the lead for S Thomas by 14 points. Isipathana drew the deficit to 7 points off the ensuing kick-off when Nadeesh Chaminda used his pace to run down the line to score under the posts.

Half-time: S. Thomas’ College 14 – Isipathana College 7

If Isipathana were to make a comeback they needed to score early in the second half, but Thomians had other ideas. They defended brilliantly all through the half and managed to score again whilst having a man in the bin as Naveen Henakankanamge used his blistering pace to give the Thomians a 19-07 lead.

Isipathana kept fighting through the dying stages of the game and ran in a consolation try in the very last phase of the game but the Thomians celebrated as they were crowned the Schools 7’s champions once again.

Full time: S. Thomas’ College 19 – Isipathana College 14