In a week of contrasting action and outcomes, St. Joseph’s College who scored seven tries, five-tries in the second half, ensured safe passage into the super round beating St. Anthony’s College Kandy by 35points to 20 at Havelock Park in the Dialog Schools Rugby League.
The Joes entered this game with four changes, including their skipper while the Antonians made three changes. But the Joes despite being depleted proved a point that even without the best players a team can win in the right frame of mind and self motivation.
For the winning St. Joseph’s College outfit the seven tries were scored by Deshan Tharuka -one, Chamodh Seneviratne- two, Mandara Amarasekara - one, Minidu Pathirana- one, Jehan Athukorala- one and Sithaja Sanjeewa- one, but unfortunately even with three different kickers they missed all seven conversions.
Flanker Zaky Jeffrey scored-1 try and fly half Sahan Keerthisiri fired across the 5 penalties for the losing St. Anthony’s team.
Isipathana now the team to beat
Isipathana College moved into the second round with five consecutive wins after edging out a fighting Vidyartha College outfit by 25 points-23 win at Nittawela.
At half time Isipathana was trailing Vidyartha 13-16 but they came out storming and finished off the host with a challenging scoreline in the end.
Skipper Dahan Wickramaarachchi, N. Kavishka and S.Wewalapanditha scored the tries for Isipathana with M. Boteju firing across two conversions and two penalties while S. Premarathne and prop B. Dharmasiri scored one try apiece for losing Vidyartha with Menuka Thilakarathne slotting in the two conversions and three penalties.
Wesley thrash Dharmaraja 31-12
Wesley College lived up to expectations and defeated Dharmaraja College by 31 points to 12 in an important fixture where they moved on to the Super Round at Nittawela.
This was a do-or-die encounter for Wesley as this was a must-win game for them to assure qualification.
For the winning Wesley lads the tries were scored by Nithila Rodrigo- two, Tharusha Jayaweera- two and Hafeez Thabeeth- one while the conversions were fired across by Shaveen Jayawardene- two and Shane Hopwood- one.
For the losing Dharmaraja College, tries were scored by Thenuka Wickramasinghe and Saumya Wijesiri while Wijesiri slotted in the solitary conversion.
S.Thomas thrash Kingswood 36-08
The Thomians’ made it back to back wins to end the Dialog Schools Rugby season, seeing off a dogged Kingswood outfit in a 36-08 win.
For S. Thomas’ the six tries were scored by Akira Perera- two, D. Fernando- one, R. Kurukulasuriya- one, R De Silva- one and G. Lenagala and Yehan Bulathsinhalage- two and Mahith Perera- one.
Science shock lackluster Peterites
St. Peter’s College bowed out of the League as the most disappointing team managing to win just the opening match against Dharmaraja and drawing against Wesley while losing to Isipathana, Vidyartha and Science College 12-10 in their last outing.
The Peterites had plenty of ball to beat Science College but lacked motivation raising many questions that need to be answered.
Against Vidyartha they were slow and low in moving the ball until time ran out, played well against Isipathana but lacked the finishing touch against a better motivated side and played as a lackluster unit against Wesley, a school they use to beat by huge margins in the past.
The bottom line was that the Peterites never looked like a team who deserved to be in a Super Round after another disappointing performance on the field.
For the winning Science College the tries were scored by S. S. Aloka and H. L. Kaluarachchi with Nadun Kaveesha slotting in one conversion.
Winger Vishenka Silva scored both unconverted tries for the losing Peterites.