St. Joseph’s College dispatched Zahira College 47-5 at the Havelock Park in the Maradana Darby, displaying a commanding seven-try romp to continue their winning streak in the Schools’ Rugby League 2019.
Both lineups saw two changes being made by Nilfer Ibrahim and Collin Denish and the hosts headed in with intentions building on their good start to the season while the visitors were in search of their maiden season victory.
It took the Josephians just three minutes to get on the scoresheet as the mercurial Tharindu Maduranga shifted gears in the far corner following some sublime build up play by the home team.
Santhush Algama made no mistake with the touchline conversion, drop kicking the ball through the posts as the support staff had forgotten the kicking tee. (SJC 07-00 ZC)
Zahira failed to get going in the first half, knocking on possession time and time again as the Josephians dominated the first half.
The St. Joseph’s backline brought on the Razzle-Dazzle bamboozling their opposition to register their next three tries in the first stanza.
Rashane Gunarwardena sniped through a yawning gap as captain Tharindu De Alwis popped a sumptuous ball to the half back, breaking off the tail of a scrum. The nippy no.9 shot through the dog-leg to dive over for the third of his season.
Ten-minutes later Santhush Algama put on the big ‘don’t-argue’ fend out to break through from 5-meters out to score the Josphian’s third of the evening.
The hat-trick of backline tries were sealed with another first phase set-play. This time the orchestrator, Santhush Algama. The five-eighth missed out two decoy-runners on to set up the ‘owers’ run of Sudaraka Devappriya to go untouched on the stroke of half time.
Player of the Match, Santhush Algama made no mistake with every conversion, keeping his 100% record in-tact off the tee, to take the hosts into halftime with the bonus point secured.
Halftime: St. Joseph’s College 28 (4T 4C) lead Zahira College 00
Captain Tharindu De Alwis displayed his superior handling skills, this time sending over fellow backrower Nehan Perera to continue proceedings from where they left off. Santhush made no mistake with the extras. (SJC 35-00 ZC)
Tharindu De Alwis capped his evening with a try of his own as the captain leading from front, dived off the back of a maul as Zahira’s evening went from bad to worse.
Algama’s record of the tee was blemished as he made a blunder with the conversion, giving the opponents some respite.
They pounced on the set back, bagging their first try of the game as lock-forward M. Mirshan was the beneficiary to dive over for an unconverted try. (SJC 40-05 ZC)
St. Joseph’s bounced back from being punished for letting the tempo drop. Zahira College fumbled possession with three-minutes left, the hosts made their presence felt, winning a penalty and going for the kill.
Gershom Thangiah found himself at the back of a maul, no sooner hitting the target, and scampered towards the try line, however, a high tackle proved too much for the liking of ‘A’ Division referee debutant Gihan Yatawara, yielding a penalty try for the hosts to add seven further to the scoresheet as the referee put Zahira out of their misery.
Fulltime: St. Joseph’s College 47 (7T 6C) beat Zahira College 5 (1T)
ThePapare.com Player of the Match: Santhush Algama (Joes Five-eighth)
Points Breakdown:
St. Joseph’s College: Tharindu Maduranga 1T, Rashan Gunawardena 1T, Santhush Algama 1T, 5C, Thanrindu De Alwis 1T Sudaraka Devappriya 1T, Nehan Perera 1T, Penalty Try
Zahira College: M. Mirshan 1T
