Playing with 14 players most of the game Wesley College routed St. Joseph’s College by an impressive 34 points (5 tries, 3 conversions, a penalty) to 12 (2 tries, 1 conversion) in their Schools Dialog Trophy league rugby encounter at Havelock Park yesterday.
Wesley dominated the second half too and scored two tries and a penalty to give them the clear lead while the Jose just could not get any points on their board through their sloppy game.
Wesley worked the ball among their backs and forwards to gain territorial advantage and create the openings for them to score two tries. It was their burly forward Sanruk Gamage who scored both tries that were converted by Abdul Hadhi while he also put over a penalty early in the second half from 22 metres out.
The Joes were sloppy in their ball handling and there was no cohesion among the forwards that deprived them from scoring more points.
Wesley lost a player midway in the first half when referee Gihan Yatawara spotted centre Mahathir Raban unleashing a high tackle twice during the game.
Wesley failed to open scoring in the second minute when they were awarded a penalty for not releasing the ball. The conversion was missed by Abdul Hadhi.
However, it was St. Joseph’s who opened scoring in the tenth minute when their scrum half Senithu Eran broke away from the base about ten metres from the Wesley line and scored a try.
Thereafter Wesley scored twice when Naheel Jayah scored a try and Hadhi made the conversion. This try was followed by another try by winger Mohamad Fawaz who made a good run on the wing to fall over unchallenged. The conversion was missed and they took a 12-5 lead.
Joes struck back nine minutes later when their hooker Beeshma Jayasekera dummied his was off a loose maul. He converted his try and Joes equalized 12-all.
With the half time approaching Wesley went ahead when a constructive move saw Thahir Bazeer go over to score an unconverted try. They took the lead 17-12 at half time.
