Schools Rugby: Milo knockout competition to begin tomorrow

Thursday, 8 June 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From Left: Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) Treasure K.S.P Karunarathne, Ministry of Education Sports Director Col. Manjula Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) President B.A. Aberathne, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Nestle Lanka Vice President (Beverages) Norman Kannangara, Nestle Lanka Corporate Affairs and Communications Vice President Bandula Egodage and Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) Secretary Denzil Darling With the Sponsorship documents. - Pic by Upul Abayasekara

The Milo Inter-School Knockout Rugby tournaments are set to begin tomorrow with several leading schools set to take part in the first round of quarterfinal action.

The main event is the Presidential Knockout Trophy, which will be contested among Dharmaraja College, Wesley College, St. Joseph’s College, Trinity College Kandy, St. Peter’s College, Isipathana College and St. Anthony’s College Kandy. Recently crowned league champions Royal College were due to take part but pulled out of the event citing injury concerns, which saw Dharmaraja get a walkover into the semifinals.

The 13th Milo Presidential Knockout trophy will kick off tomorrow at the Sugathadasa Stadium when Wesley take on St. Joseph’s at 4.15 p.m, while the Premier Trophy and Chairman’s Trophy will kick off at 2.00 p.m. and 10.00 a.m. respectively. The final of the President’s Trophy will be on 24 June.

The knockout tournament consisted initially of just the President’s Trophy but was expanded in 2004 to add the Premier Trophy so as to give teams that have been unlucky not to be included in the President’s Trophy a chance to play. In 2008 the Chairman’s Trophy was also included to give lesser known schools a chance of competing in the same competition. In 2009 there was a name change and the tournament became the Milo Knockout Tournament.

In a press release the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA) expressed its gratitude at being associated with Nestle Sri Lanka which, under their brand name MILO, has been the title sponsors of both the Division I and Division Il age group tournaments since 1993.

The groundbreaking year however was 1995 when for the first time in the history of school rugby in Sri Lanka - in order for the development of the game and also to make it more popular among the masses – rugby was taken outstation and two tournaments were held in Kandy, Badulla and Kurunegala. Furthermore, currently one of the most popular tournaments among schools, the President’s Trophy, was also inaugurated.

The release paid further homage to Milo who will be celebrating their 25th year sponsoring School’s Rugby, adding: “Milo has been magnanimous to the sporting fraternity of Sri Lanka in sponsoring more than ten sports and rugby is lucky to be one of them. This partnership between Milo and SLSRFA has been getting stronger by the year and the 24th year of sponsoring will be celebrated in 2017. There is no doubt that it will last for ever more.”