Kingswood College Kandy put in yet another clinical performance in the 4th week of the Singer Schools Rugby league against St. Anthony’s College to seal the deal in the segment 1A and qualify to the round two of the cup division. The game at the end of the allocated 70 minutes of play ended 27-12 in favor of the visiting Kingswoodians amidst a reasonable turn-out at the Nittawela stadium earlier this evening. At lemons both teams went into the shed with a 12 all stalemate.
It was a complete turnaround of weather from Saturday when the match was originally scheduled to have been played. The Antonians were boosted by the inclusions of Theeksha Gunasinghe and Janidu Himsara their cricketers coming back into the team after a packed season of cricket.
The boys from Randles Hill were clinical in the first 15 minutes and went into an early lead of 5-0 courtesy of Pathum Weerasinghe the heavy front rower scoring off an inside pass from the scrum-half 5m from the try-line out wide. Hirusha Sampath who had an excellent outing with boot against Trinity failed his first attempt to add the extras. (KCK 05-00 SACK)
Discipline has long been an issue in the School’s Rugby arena so when the try scorer Weerasinghe himself tackled Janidu Himasra with no arms, Referee Priya Suranga had to simply show Weerasinghe a yellow. And from the resulting line-out an impressive set-piece move saw Mohommed Shabeer sucking in the defense and pop a pass to flanker Jithen Daulagala who crashed over. Mohommed Markarim added the extras to give Antonians the lead. (KCK 05-07 SACK)
Trinity too strong for spirited Thomians
Trinity College Kandy managed to win the Canon De Saram tophy..
Unfortunately for Kingswood the lead grew by 5 more points as a lovely cut-out pass found Matheesh Amarasinghe going over the white wash for the third time in the game. Mohommed Markarim failed to add the much-needed extras from the right flank.
Over the 10-minute sin-bin period the Antonians had run away with two tries taking the game slowly using their forwards to good use with perfect execution at the break downs. However, Kingswood had other ideas in mind, it was they who scored next through their ever-reliable fly-half Asiri Senevirathne. All drama started back inside the their own 22m when Anthony’s were trying to pin holes in the defense. Dinal Ekanayake pounced on the loose ball and put a neat punt over the defense to chase it down and crash into the full-back with another 25m to the try line. It was then the rushing Kingswood scrum-half handed Senevirathne the ball with which he stepped, turned, twisted and stretched for the second try. Hirusha Sampath added the extras to make the game come to a halt at half-time 12 all. (KCK 12-12 SACK)
Half Time; Kingswood 12(2T 1C) – 12(2T 1C) St. Anthony’s
It took the Kingswoodians just seconds to open their account in the second half after a Dinal Ekanayake break, exploiting an overlap in the Antonian defense inside the 22m. From the recycled possession, scrum-half Hirusha Sampath fired a pass to the short side where Dinal was on hand to finish an unconverted score. (KCK 17-12 SACK)
Things went from bad to worse for the Antonians as Chathura Zoysa went over the far corner flag with a super rugby style diving finish. The defense cut open in half by Asiri Senevirathne was spread wide to the wing where the ball found the hands of the tall second row player Zoysa to his credit who kept his composure to finish off in style. Sampath added the extras to double their half time score. (KCK 24-12 SACK)
Late try seals the deal for Peterites
A late try in the 66th minute by Peterite scrum half Jason..
Kingswood added the icing on top of their victorious cake in the dying minutes when they took time, got themselves sorted and made the decision to take the 3 points on offer in the kicking tee. Avishka Poornajith bisect the post from the easiest of kicks he might have ever kicked. (KCK 27-12 SACK)
Referee Suranga blew the long whistle to end a game which looked pleasing to the eyes with a reduced number of mistakes and a lot of fast running rugby which the spectators like to witness and they surely got a game worth for their money.
Kingswood with this victory sealed the deal in the Division 1A. It will be Anthony’s and S. Thomas who will have to wait another year to play in the top division as they are both being relegated to the plate division with Kingswood themselves will go along to the next round with unbeaten Royal, Joes and Trinity.
Full Time Score: Kingswood 27 (4T 2C 1P) defeat St. Anthony’s 12 (2T 1C)
- ThePapare.com player of the match: Janitha Rajanayake
Score Breakdown
Kingswood College – Asiri Senevirathne (1T), Dinal Ekanayake (1T), Chathura Zoysa (1T), Pathum Weerasinghe (1T), Hirusha Sampath (2C), Avishka Poornajith (1P)
St.Anthony’s College – Jithen Daulagala (1T), Matheesh Amaresinghe (1T), Mohommed Makarim (1C)
