HARFA greens take major honours

HARFA Greens took major honours at the 5th annual Hisham Abdeen Rugby Football Academy ( HARFA) Rugby Extravaganza which took place at Havelock Park in Colombo on the first weekend of October. The young HARFA ruggerites proved that they are nurtured the correct way after annexing the Under- 20, 16 and 14 Cup championships and emerging as Under-18 runners-up.

HARFA beat Dharmapala Vidyalaya Pannipitiya in the Under- 18 Cup final. The home team also bagged the Under- 16 Cup championship by beating St. Benedict’s College in a keenly contested final while their Under- 14 side beat Ananda College to claim the Under- 14 Cup title. With the large number in participation in the Under- 14 age category, D. S. Senanayake went on to defeat St. Thomas’ Prep School to annex the Plate championship.

The two- day event was an eagerly awaited one, with over 600 schoolboys taking part in it. The tournament also included exhibition matches besides the competitive and healthy clashes between the rivals. A total of 54 junior teams from leading schools and HARFA competed in the main segment while a total of 12 contested in the Open and Evergreen categories. Over 160 matches with two days of riveting rugby were held.

The Open tournament was won by Army who beat their sec- ond team in the final while the Over- 35s tournament was won by Old Kingswoodians, who beat Old Lumbini in the final. The Over-45s tournament which was much anticipated with some famous yesteryear players in action display was won by Old Royalists. They beat HARFA in the final. Jan Vlaskamp, the Director of Delta Aviation and a Patron on HARFA graced the awards ceremony as the chief guest. Sujeewa Perera of Singer Sri Lanka, Krishan Jayachandra of Tool Global Express, Shanthini Perera of the Ministry of Resettlement and Roshan Deen of Havelocks SC also were present at the awards ceremony.