U16 10’s unbeaten eight to battle for victory

The U16 ten’s tournament kicked off, springing  a few surprises, as Kingswood College last year runner’s up was knocked out by a dominant performance by St. Anthony’s grabbing the final cup quarterfinal slot played at the Pallekalle and Digana stadiums in Kandy.

As the quarter final spots have been well reserved, Royal College is set to face arch rivals Trinity College, for the second time in consecutive tournaments, previous one being the U18 sevens. Isipathana College will go up against Wesley College after two stellar performances by both teams on the opening day. St. Peter’s against St. Joseph’s is going to be another downtown big match battle while Dharmaraja College see themselves face off against St. Anthony’s College in the fourth cup quarter final to be played first thing on day two.

Cup Quarter Finals:

QF 1 – Trinity College vs Royal College

QF 2 – Isipathana College vs Wesley College

QF 3 – St. Peter’s College vs St. Joseph’s College

QF 4 – Dharmaraja College vs St. Anthony’s College

Eight groups saw 25 teams take centre stage at the two venues in the hill capital as three teams were placed in the first two groups A and B, with group C holding 4 teams and group D containing five teams as they battled their way out of the groups at Pallekalle Stadium. The rest of the groups were taken further away to the Digana Stadium.

Starting off Trinity College the defending champions slotted in to Group A, booked a top dog spot and also a quarter final early morning on day 02 after comfortable wins against Lumbini College and Piliyandala Central. The match between the latter two was won by Lumbini College rather comfortably.

Both Royal College and D.S. Senanayake College defeated Carey College with ease making an interesting group decider between the two teams in the group B.

Royal who started on their merry way took an early lead into the game only to be halted abruptly mid through as DS staged a comeback, although they were cut short by a score of a conversion of 2 points as the game ended 12-10 in favour of Royal

In group C Isipathana College next overcame their obstacles Ananda, St. Aloysius and Sumangala College booking the top spot in the group for themselves. Sumangala booked their bowl quarter final with a second-place slot with wins against the rest. St. Aloysius and Ananda fell into the 3^rd and 4^th spots respectively.

Wesley College were placed in a rather complicated group D consisting of five teams, highest in any group. However, the boys from Campbell Park made no mistake, dispatching the teams to be the top dog in the group. St. Sylvester’s after their loss to Wesley held strong to book a bowl quarter final spot. Rest of the teams fell away from the tournament with only consolation victories although Eheliyagoda was unable to do so.

Concurrently the next four groups were played but the SLSRFA did not disclose the results of the matches played at Digana.

However, after winning the groups comfortably St. Joseph’s College, St. Peter’s College, Dharmaraja College and St. Anthony’s College have emerged group winners and will be contenders in the cup division while Kingswood College and Vidyartha College are two teams that have missed out in the group stages.

The Bowl and the Shield quarters finals will be as follows.

Bowl Quarter Finals:

Shield Quarter Finals: