A good fight-back in the second half by Zahira College almost turned tables on S. Thomas’ College who had to throw in everything at their disposal to win their quarter final match in the Dialog schools rugby knock out encounter at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
The Thomians eventually won 27-20 after Zahira came inches close to crossing the line near the posts that could have levelled the scores and gone into extra-time.
The Thomians will now meet Isipathana College in one semi final while League champions St. Peter’s College will confront Wesley College in the other semi final next week.
Zahira dominated the second half through some constructive play among their forwards that saw them catch up on the scores to 20-20 at one point as they scored two quick tries within the space of five minutes to equalize.
The first was through hooker Areeb Careem who was positioned near the touch line after throwing into the line-out to go over forcefully after which winger Binuk Perera collected the ball in Zahira’s own ‘22’ and covered more than 60 metres slicing through several tacklers to score the best try of the match.
Farzan converted the try making the scores 20-20.
This boosted their enthusiasm and produced more penetrative play but the Thomian defence held on stubbornly.
The match winning try for the Thomians came when their back division moved the ball around looking for openings and Mayanka Dias spotted a gap and dummied his was past one defender to go under the posts for Yehan Bulathsinhalage to convert making the scores 27-20.
S. Thomas’ took a comfortable lead by 20 points to 8 in the first half taking possession at every given opportunity.
They scored ten points within the first five minutes through a penalty by Bulathsinhala and a try by Ajith Cooray that was converted.
Zahira opened scoring with a penalty through Farzan but the Thomians scored again through a try by hooker Thehan Senaratne who put the finishing touches to a rolling maul.
Zahira scored next when a forwards ploy saw scrum half Abdeen spot an opening to barge over.
The Thomians scored again when a fumble by Zahira made Avishka Perera collect and dash over 50 metres to touch down.
With that try the Thomians took their score to 20 points to just 8 points by Zahira at the half time.
Kelum Sandaruwan refereed.
