Wesley’s Journey in Rugby since her Beginnings in 1956

Rugby is said to have originated at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, in 1823 when during a game of football a young boy named William Webb Ellis decided to pick up a ball and run towards the opposition’s goal line ignoring the rules of football. This is said to be the origin of rugby. Although there is very little evidence to support this theory, the Rugby World Cup Trophy is now named after William Webb Ellis.

The rules of rugby were however established at Rugby school in 1846 which is known as the birthplace of the game. Rugby School is located in Warwickshire, 100 miles northwest of London. This prestigious elite school was founded in 1567, has a long history and tradition, and has produced many star players.
Sri Lanka discovered the game of rugby at the same time as India, and the first rugby club, the Colombo Football Club, was founded in Sri Lanka in 1879. In 1896 the Colombo Football Club amalgamated with the Colombo Hockey Club to become the Colombo Hockey and Football Club). The first rugby match played between two selected teams occurred on 30 June that year between Colombo and a ‘World’ Team.
The first ever club game to be played was on 7 September 1880 between Dickoya MCC and Dimbulla ACC at Darawella.
In 1891 rugby was introduced to the country’s high schools by L. E. Blaze, the first Principal of Kingswood College, Kandy. Kingswood played the first high school rugby match in the country against their hometown rivals Trinity College in 1906
Wesley College officially kicked off her rugby in 1956. Eddie Buell, who later captained the Air Force, was Wesley’s first Captain. The person who is rightly labelled the “Father of Rugby at Wesley” was Mr. Dalton D’Abrera or “Dubby” as he was affectionately called by the boys then.

Trevor Collette writing to the Double Blue International mentions “I remember “Dubby” quite vividly and recall with nostalgia his running around Campbell Park in his flapping khaki shorts , white jersey tucked into his ‘jocks’, with his ever present whistle. He lived in Dehiwela and used to usually travel to and from school in the school bus, however he occasionally rode in on his BSA ‘kukula’ bantam and it was a treat to see Dubby on this little bike giving big “Golu” Gunasekera a lift home after rugger practice. On the days he drove his Triumph “Mayflower” in we set new records as about 10 or 12 twelve of us squeezed in for a lift home. On most occasions we would stop at Bambalapitiya junction where Dubby bought all of us ice cold milk from the Milk Board kiosk on the corner. We also used to be given “Haliborange” tablets during the season, all this out of his own funds.

During the rugby season Dubby the teacher transformed himself in to a “full time rugby coach and occasional master”. All we had to do during a physics or maths class was mention anything to do with rugby and immediately the Coefficient of Linear expansion and Newton’s Laws were forgotten and the black board came alive with diagrams on positional play, angles and trajectories for a kick in the box, up and under, as well as scrumming techniques all became the subject matter for the period. It was the only class I know where the traditional back benchers sat right up the front and the bright studious types were confined to the rear of the class “.

It is mentioned that Mr. D’Abrera decided to give up being master in charge at the end of the 1961 season, due to disagreement with the school authorities on the level of support given to the sport.

The next few years were rather gloomy and difficult for rugby at Wesley. It was mainly players such as the late Dr. Daya Perera, Sheriff Fallil, C. Sin Sen, Beverley de Neise, Haig Maloney, the two Chang brothers (CF & CS), Chandima de Silva, Basheer Musafer, Michael and Nigel Christoffelsz, Russell Schockman, Trevor Collette , William Deutrom, Lakshman Perera, Haig Claessen,the late Sharie Musafer, Ranjith Aaron, Reg Bartholomeusz, Lucky Samaranayake, Desmond Jayawardene, helped by the likes of Darrel Maye, Everard Walker, Lucien Fernando, Upali Perera, Hemaka Jayasekera, Hans Jonklaas and, Roy Oorloff, who all took up the game late and along with the others kept the flame alive . Not encouraged any way by the school in 1962 those interested to play the game were told that as there was no master in charge rugby would be stopped at Wesley. However a few of the seniors managed to persuade their likeable Chemistry Master Mr. Pakianathan to volunteer for the job.

The three years 1961 to 1963 did produce a few highlights in spite of the set-backs. Chandima de Silva recalls his team beat Isipathana, and nearly did the same to Trinity at Campbell Park.

Reggie Bartholomeusz went on to play for and captain CR&FC, and represent Sri Lanka for many years, Basheer Musafer played and captained the Army team and also went on to represent Sri Lanka. In fact the Sri Lankan team of 1972 had three Wesleyites namely Reggie Bartholomeusz, Basheer Musafer and Cavan Gauder who played for Wesley. C.S.Chang played for Havelocks, Trevor Collette played a few games for Uva, and Nigel Christoffelsz continued to play rugby in Australia. This lot of Wesleyites from the early sixties carefully nurtured the rugby flame under extremely adverse conditions and handed it over for the succeeding generations to nourish and fan it in to the bright white hot beacon it is today. Moving to the mid and latter part of the 60’s and early 70’s Wesley teams were led by versatile individuals namely, S. Musafer, S. Ramakrishnan, Shee Hung, Asoka Jayawardena and M.C.A. Cader (both of whom were better known for their judo), J. Kreltszhelm and Tariq Bongso.

During the mid and late 70’s Wesley produced decent rugby sides that were Captained by Iqbal Musafer, Vino Joseph, Treherne Keil, Ronnie Oumar, Yohan Raju and in all probability the most successful team of the 70’s was the 1978 team captained by Rashmore Ferdinands, having lost only one match 0 – 4 to Trinity College. It is recorded that from the 1978 team eight Wesleyites represented the Colombo North side which included Royal, St. Josephs, and St. Benedicts in a game against The Colombo South team which included S. Thomas, Issipathana etc. The eight Wesleyites were Wesley Captain Rashmore Ferdinands, Ajith Uvaise, Ajith Dias, Bachi Oumar, Zubair Doray, Ransiri Sahabandu, Shehan Nanayakkara and Faizal Bongso.

RUGBY REVIVAL

In the early 90’s Kishan Musafer played in the big league representing CR & FC and captaining the club, is the longest serving national player for Wesley. Since the revival in 1996 with the involvement of Ransiri Sahabandu, Clive De Silva and the Class of 90’s, Wesley produced national players in the likes of Zulfikar Halimdeen and Junior Tuskers in Razil Doray, Lahiru Boteju, Ziard Thahir, Steve Perera and Mahes Samarasinghe. Another highlight in Wesley rugby history was that the 1997 team under the Captaincy of A. Wadugodapitiya became unbeaten runners-up in the league.

During the millennium Wesley reached the pinnacle by being within the top four on many occasions in the league. Under the captaincy of Lahiru Boteju Wesley once again became league runners-up in 2003 and in the following season of 2004 became runners-up in the knockout tournament under the captaincy of Kasun De Silva. The Golden year of Wesley rugby was in 2013 when under the captaincy of Rahul De Silva Wesley triumphed over Trinity to win the Milo Knockout Presidents Trophy. The photograph of the 2013 1^st XV team is featured separately in this chapter.

The new millennium paved the way to produce many Junior and Senior nationals in the calibre of Lahiru Boteju, Kasun De Silva, Henry Terrence, Samantha Lakshan, Niroshan Karunanayake, Dulanjan Wijesinghe, Dulaj Perera, Rahul De Silva and Joel Perera. Niranjan Wickramaratne, Shehan Dias and Sithum Pieris who represented the shorter version by being members of the National 7’s team. 

In 2015 the rugby encounter between Wesley and S. Thomas’ was elevated to a different dimension when it was inaugurated and played for the Sir Oliver Goonetilleke Shield. Since its inauguration the game has grown to be a sought after rugby fixture in the schools rugby calendar. 

With the introduction of Paul Toia (A New Zealand Maori) as the consultant cum Head Coach of Wesley Rugby in 2017 there was a transformation of attitude among the rugby players. Being “humble” has been the main theme of the transition, which continues in Wesley rugby as a tradition. 2019 saw Wesley once again reached the final and become runners-up in the knockout tournament under the captaincy of Murshid Doray.  

May Wesley’s rugby grow from strength to strength as she journeys to her 175^th year.         
Wesley emerged Bowl Champions in the All Island Rugby 7’s Tournament held at the Royal College Sports Complex in 18^th & 19^th December 2021. 

Ritzbury Super 16 Tournament was held on  at Royal Complex 3 teams participated in Under 10 and 2 teams in the Under 12 All teams came to the 4^th round. 

Kingswood Vs. Wesley Rugby Encounter played for L. E. Blaze Trophy on 14^th October 2022 at CR & FC grounds and Wesley won the L. E. Blaze Trophy 

Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association Organized Under 14   10-a-side Division I Schools Rugby Tournament was held on 29^th & 30^th December at Kurunegala Maliyadeva College Grounds.

Wesley became unbeaten Cup Champions in the Under 14 Schools Rugby Tournament 2022.