It was day of great joy and historical significance for Thurstan when they launched their Rugby development project at a colourful ceremony attended by Minister of Sports and Recreation Gamini Lokuge and Namal Rajapaksa, President of the Tharunyata Hetak Organization at the Thurstan Park, Prof. Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha on Friday Dec 4th 2009.
It was a dream comes true for this intrepid school that was badly hampered due to lack of their own grounds for Rugby. As quoted by veteran scribe T.M.K. Samat better known in boxing circles the beginning was in 1957 when some boys got together and played around sans participation in official tournaments.
The year 1957 was the first official year of Thurstan Rugby and the honour of being the first Captain went to Surath Wickremasinghe who also captained the team in 1958, fitting Surath was a distinguished invitee and had the privilege of cutting the first sod along with other distinguished guests.
Namal Rajapaksa in his speech tracing his Rugby roots elaborated his commitment to Rugby and expressed his satisfaction on the manner the recent Carlton Sevens tournament was conducted.
He also recalled that his father President Mahinda Rajapaksa?s involvement in Rugby during his school days at Thurstan.
President Rajapaksa was a leading member of Thurstan?s champion school athletic team in 1960/61 and also had a brief stint with Rugby but continued to concentrate on athletics that was close to his heart.
With the development of the proposed Rugby ground Thurstan is bound to be a force to be reckoned with as they no longer will have to do nomadic rounds seeking venues for practices and matches.
Despite the handicap of not having grounds Thurstan over the last half a century had produced an array of eminent Rugby players and administrators at the highest level making a noble contribution to the game.
Jeff Rutnam who played from 1957 to 59 had the honour of leading Ceylon to its first ever international victory over Paris University Club.
The architect behind the Rugby development and Revival DIG (Rtd) Upali Hewage also a member of the Rugby Interim Committee who has been a tower of strength behind Thurstan Rugby for nearly three decades.
In his vote of thanks he expressed his gratitude to the President for initiating to provide a block of land for the ground and also paid a glowing tribute to the Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge in helping the proposed development.
Even though large number of schools have taken up to Rugby in the last few years there has not been any increase of Rugby grounds in Colombo for past several decades. This is a major dilemma faced by the schools as well as emerging smaller clubs.
Hence the entry of Thurstan Rugby ground will be a significance boost to the development of Rugby in Sri Lanka, close proximity to the Rugby Union Headquarters too will be a positive factor.
Sunil Karuanayake
