Trinity College Kandy they won the Under 16 10-a-side title beating Kingswood College in extra time after the game ended 12-12 at full time.
Full time score: Trinity 17 – Kingswood 12
The All Island Under 16 10-a-side tournament kicked off in hill capital on the 19th of August and this time around it was shifted from the traditional Bogambora stadium to Pallekelle and Teldeniya Ministry grounds.
At the end of the first day it was Kingswood, Dharmaraja, Wesley, Trinity, Royal, Science, St. Peter’s & Vidyartha College who managed to get their quarterfinal berths remaining unbeaten.
Progressing to the finals, it was a meeting between the hometown rivals; Trinity and Kingswood. The last time the two sides met in the U16 competition was way back in 2010 and it was Kingswood who were victorious.
It was 12-12 after the allocated 20-minutes of play and with play extending to extra time, it was the Trinity side who emerged victorious as the game ended 17-12.
The best player of the tournament was awarded to Shehan Sirisoma of Trinity College Kandy for the excellent tournament he had. Dharmaraja managed to grab the Plate Championship after another nail biter with Science College while St.Joseph’s and D.S Senanayake won the bowl and the shield finals respectively.
Earlier in the day, St.Peter’s overcame Vidyartha by a huge margin of 22 points in the first quarter final in the first match of the second day. Kingswood made a stunning comeback against Dharmaraja scoring two late tries to win the second quarter final 12 points to 7. Trinity and Royal won pretty easily against Science and Wesley.
In the semi-finals Kingswood showed cased some brilliant handling and offloading skills as they won the semi-final 26 nil. Trinity thumped their arch rivals Royal College 22 nil to get into the finals.
The losers of the quarter finals then played-off each other for the Plate championship semi-finals as Dharmaraja took on Vidyartha College and Wesley took on Science College. Science College who possessed so many good runners in their team scored either side of half time with one try being an 80m dash to the try line. Wesley just managed one try with the final score being 12 points to 5. Dharmaraja scored to unconverted tries to nothing of Vidyartha to set up the final against Science in which they came on top.
St.Josephs, Lumbini, Sri Sumangala and Thurstan managed to make it into the semi-finals as they defeated St.Anthony’s, St.Annes, Piliyandala and Zahira.
In the semi’s Joes defeated Lumbini and Sri Sumangala defeated Thurstan to make it into the final. St.Joseph’s had an easy stroll in the final winning it 28 points to nothing.
In the Shield championship, DS Senanayake defeated Mahanama College and S.t Sylvester’s College defeated Maliyadeva. DS managed to win the Shield at the end of the day.
With the U16 15-a-side tournament starting next week, this would serve as a good warm up for the players as many of them showed some excellent skills.
