Supporters of St. Joseph’s College dashed onto the field to hug their heroes who pulled off a narrow one point win over Isipathana in their inter school League rugby encounter played at Havelock Park yesterday.
St. Joseph’s only managed to get ahead with about 15 minutes left to the end when they scored a try and converted that gave them 18 points (2 tries, a conversion, 2 penalties) to 17 (2 tries, 2 conversions, a penalty) by Isipathana.
They deserved credit for playing to their strength by using their hefty forwards to crawl inches into the Isipathana territory to earn their two tries, particularly in the second half.
At times they occupied the Isipathana territory for as long as 15 minutes without much flare in the game but they achieved what they were looking for.
Isipathana had an opportunity of going ahead even after conceding the one point lead. Their place kicker in Ruberu was good with his kicks and with one attempt at converting a penalty from 45 metres out he hit the cross bar. But he failed with another easier one from less than 30 metres out that missed the right upright on a day when Isipathana ran out of luck.
Isipathana started by scoring a snap try in the tenth minute when a pass from the base of a Joes scrum saw Isipathana scrum half Chamath Kalhara collect the loose ball and dash over 50 metres to score.
Ruberu made certain of the conversion to give them maximum points.
Ten minutes later Isipathana increased their lead when an infringement in the loose saw Ruberu put over a 30-metre penalty.
Thereafter, it was the Joes who took their turn to score. They succeeded with two penalties taken by Santhush Algama within kicking range.
With the minutes ticking by towards the end of the first half Isipathana scored another good try. They won a sequence of mauls and on working their back division saw Manula Ratnayake go over. Ruberu did well to convert from a difficult angle.
Isipathana took a 17-6 lead at half time.
It took just a few minutes after the turn around for St. Joseph’s to score their first try. They won a scrum and on working a few mauls Pavindu Dilshan barged over near the posts. Algama surprisingly failed with the conversion.
Joes scored again in the 22nd minute of the second half when off a short tap Shehan Eranda barged over. Algama made sure of the conversion that gave them the one point lead.
Thereafter, Isipathana pepped up on their attack and had a fair number of chances at scoring. They failed to handle the ball well at crucial times. To add to their misery Ruberu failed with three kicks at goal with penalties on a luckless day for Isipathana.
Roshan Fernando refereed.