Ruck ‘N’ Roll – Weekly Rugby Update

An action packed, enthralling week that had a bit of everything welcomed a new schools’ rugby league season for 2026. 

Last year’s League runners up Wesley were first up against newly promoted Prince of Wales and wasted little time in making their intentions clear to go one better this year with a comprehensive 69-12 victory. 

The next day though brought the league to life through a couple of upsets with Thurstan pulling off a thriller with a last gasp score on the stroke of full time to beat the more fancied S. Thomas 27-24, while Sri Sumangala traveling down to Colombo got the better of D.S Senanayaka 28-26.  

In the day’s other games St. Josephs opened their account with a confidant 41-19 over Ananda while St. Peters commenced their campaign with a clinical 67 to nil rout of Mahanama. 

The weekend fixtures in Kandy saw defending League and current Knockout champions Trinity, open their title defence against Lumbini with a comfortable 55-12 victory up in Pallakalle while Zahira prevailed in a thrilling encounter against Kingswood in Nittawela by 20-15 in a key encounter that could have an impact on whom would qualify for the Cup segment in Group C. 

Isipathana and Royal completed the week one action with relatively comfortable victories against St. Anthony’s and Science by 43-14 and 43-10 respectively, although Royal went in at half time with just a slender 4-point lead but ran away with the game in the second half with 29 unanswered points.

Tuskers go down fighting against NZ U85 Kg team

The Sri Lankan National 15’s outfit opened their International season in a thrilling encounter against the New Zealand U85kg team at the Racecourse grounds on Saturday (25). 

Although going down 27-16, the Tuskers can be extremely pleased with the effort they put in considering there were no less than 10 players in the match day 23 making their international debuts. 

The hosts dominance at scrum and lineout time was a key feature of the performance while defensively they were outstanding as well. 

Probably the main area they will need to improve is in attack where they seem to lack options and were rather one dimensional at times despite enjoying ample possession.

The second encounter will take place on Sunday (3 May) at Nittawala and the Tuskers will look to back up this performance by going one better and get their maiden victory against their opponents. 

Source - The Morning