Brian Thomas and Christopher Jordashe reporting
St Peters, Isipathana. given a scare whilst Kingswood registered a win , Thomian grit gets them over the line , whilst DS prove their endurance. Sumangala beat Vidyartha in a historical win
St Peters 29 Science 23
Sanath Martis was in distress as St. Peters, the defending champions, were in for a rude shock as Science College turned up in the second half to score 17 points against the defending champions who hung on to dear life to ultimately win by 29 points to 23 after taking the breather on 19 points to 6 at Bambalapitiya on Saturday.
Science College came up with a solid performance by crossing the Peterites white wash with 2 converted tries and 3 penalties to St Peters 5 tries with only 2 conversations. Bambalapitiya lads get the bonus points but neglecting the white wash, line and taking the underdogs for granted is the root cause of their huff and puff to get to a stage of desperation. Coach Martis at the same time applauded the effort by Science College whilst lamenting that his boys have learnt a lesson in taking an opponent for granted that spells disaster.
Kingswood 27 Zahira 18.
This was a result predictable because the red Jerseys from Kandy tagged as the dark horses were at the doorstep of an upset win over at least one favourite team in their group 2 A.
Zahira, in their own backyard, led by
11points to 10 at the breather, but the worrying factor was , Kingswood crossed their white wash once , converted that try, and added 3 more points with a penalty in getting their tally to 10 points and being within striking distance of just 1 point as a deficit to Zahira who converted 2 penalties whilst scoring a solitary unconverted try.
Zahira fought back in the second half, and their supporters envisaged the tankers to repeat a script that they stitched against Dharmaraja in their own backyard. But they were in for a rude shock because Kingswood had different ideas.
Sadly, Zahira found the Kingswood defense, too hot to breach. They had to be content with only one more try in the second half, that too unconverted, but Kingswood got ahead with a converted try and a penalty to lead by 20 points to 18.
This game was down to the wire , but a late charge by the Kingswood forwards and the ball being dished out to the speedy three-quarters put the game to rest as Kingswood scores the winning try , convert their effort and the Maradana boys were shell shocked with 27 points to 18 score at the final whistle in favour of the visitors.
St Thomas 50 Mahanama 35.
It is the Thomian grit that stood them in good stead and won them the game by 50 points to 35 at Ratmalana.
After showing their class in the first half and leading by 26 points to 14, Thomians took the breather with a mixed bag, feeling just a 12 point lead after conceeding 2 converted tries in the first half. Mahanama interception try from their own 25 gave STC a rude shock.
They came back strongly in the second half,but complacency, coupled with infringements,Losing vital lineouts, being the loss of territorial advantage on occasions, saw them lose focus by letting their white wash being crossed thrice, including conversion of the 5 tries which gave Mahanama a bonus point as losers is a concern period.
Credit to kicking boots of Mayanka Dias, who converted 6 of the 7 tries scored by the Thomians to help them win by 50 points to 35 , but they need to improve in their defense overall.
No doubt yet again, the heavy Thomian forwards did the hard work, in attack they are top of the tree with ball in hand , but in defense proved to be vulnerable to state the least.
Thomians were no doubt the better side, but they tend to go off colour in intermediate periods, and this must be addressed. The Thomian three quarters impressed with some good hard running moves that had variation..Good line kicking by STC also helped them gain the additional yards.
Vidyartha lost their maiden game against Sumangala by 24 points to 12.
This was an unexpected result for Vidyartha to taste.
In their last outing against Trinity, Vidyartha defense showed cracks.
Sadly, they revisit Pallekele again and script the same mistake to be undone by Sri Sumangala for the first time in their rich Rugby history.
Sadly, I could not watch this historic game, but ground reports gave a pale account of Vidyartha losing territory and being guilty of aimless kicking. Well done Sri sumangala your hard work paid off..
Isipathana 32 Dharmaraja 19 The conditions at Nittawala were Muddy, underfoot for player safety questionable whilst ball handling was equally slippery.
For green machine life looked usual at the breather with a 20 points to 5 lead . Isipathana, using the firepower of their forwards to scored 4 tries in the first half whilst Dharmaraja used their forwards through an intercepted charge against an Isipathana kick , got the kandy boys on the scoreboard.
Breather was taken on 20 points to 5 in favour of the Green Machine superiority.
In the second half, the script changed. Isipathana was kept under check. Rajans got to the Isipathana white wash line and scored twice, and Isipathana seemed worried that they could lose grip of the game.
Isipathana won by 32 points to 19 , and Dharmaraja winning the second half despite losing the game is worthy of mention.
DS Win by 22 points to Ananda 19.
What an excellent game dished out between two improved sides of the A division league who are here to play and not participate.
Both teams have shown character and dished out some good rugby off and on but hopefully needs consistency.
Tha battle was intense, the Dons led by 19 points to 10 at the breather, but the second half was all Ananda.
DS was under the pump as Ananda made headway with a try and a penalty, whilst the DONS were tested, beyond limits, and just managed to scrape through with the aid of a penalty to win by 22 points to 18.
What a come back by DS in the last moments to snatch victory from the Jaws of defeat..
Standby keep focused. Christopher Jordashe will select the team of the week coming up in our next script.
Be the first to comment