Kandy Schools led by Thilina Wijesinghe hold out as clear winners against the Colombo Schools with a 19-08 victory at the Racecourse Grounds today.
The boys from the hill country definitely looked the fitter side as they managed to mix power with pace to help their way to a win.
However, it was Darsha Thilakarathne who scored the first points of the game with an early penalty for the Colombo Schools. Both teams were slow to get off the blocks as the first twenty minutes was more or less a warm up since most of these players have not been playing competitive rugby of late.
It was the Kandy Schools who finally settled in the fastest with fly-half Rochana Hettiarachchi bursting through the left flank to score the first try of the game. Thilina Wijesinghe failed to add the extra points.
After some consistent pressure by the Kandy Schools, Buwaneka Udangamuwa managed to shrug off a tackle from Gavin Siegertz and made his way to score the second try for the Kandy Schools. This time, Thilina managed to add the extra points to give his team a sizeable lead.
Anurudha Herath came very close to scoring for the Colombo Schools but was penalized for holding the ball on just inches away from the try line. At lemons the Kandy Schools lead 12-03 in an interesting encounter.
Similar to the first half, both teams took time to settle in especially due to the heavy down pour of rain at the Racecourse Ground.
However, Nisal Perera bundled over for the Kandy Schools in the 54th minute to extend their lead. Thilina made no mistake with the kick as the Kandy Schools had a comfortable 16 point lead with twenty minutes to go in the game.
Colombo Schools scored their first try in the 72nd minute through Janith Rambukkana who evaded the flailing arms of Rumesh Ramdas to make his way to ground. Darsha failed to add the extra points as the team in Blue were 11 points behind with less than ten minutes to go.
A resolute performance by the Kandy Schools defense saw the game through as Referee Dinka Peiris blew the full time whistle with the scores at 19-08 in favour of the Kandy Schools.
