The Canon De Seram trophy will remain in the Kandyan territory as Trinity College Kandy easily over powered S Thomas College Mt Lavinia 38-10 in their round two schools rugby league match held at the Pallekelle Stadium last evening.
The traditional fixture between the school by the sea and the school on the hill came up live for the 62nd successive occasion this year and the shield; the Cannon De Seram came into existence from the year 1978. Since then the Red Gold Blue has had slight edge over the Black and Blue with the tally reading 20 wins to 15 and a single encounter being drawn. On the bigger picture, this encounter was a must win game for the hosts, Trinity College if their hopes for the league title needs to live on. S. Thomas’ coming to this game with a devastating loss at home to Isipathana last week were opting to go for some improvement this weekend.
As the referee called play to commence, the Thomians were gifted with an opening penalty in the very first minute of play. The STC skipper Hasaka Senanayake’s option to go for the post was successful as flyhalf Ferdinando kicked through a penalty to open the scoring (0-3). Minutes after the restart, the reply of the Lions came in through their new half back Ryan Weerakoon who spotted the available gaps off a 5 meter scrum to score underneath the posts (5-3). Skipper Ratwatte made no mistake with the easy conversion as it promoted the Lions to the driving seat of the game (7-3).
Carnage ensued in the first 25 minutes as the Trinitians continued to accumulate points over their counterparts. It was evident that the Lions wanted the tries this evening with them not even considering the option to go for the posts at any given instance. Weerakoon’s try followed an excellent display of three-quarter play with the ball crossing from left wing to the right wing as Isuru Rangala crossed for the second try for the evening. Ratwatte didn’t get much of it and the kick went sailing to the left leaving the scores at 12-3.
Isuru Rangala’s try was followed by a set of two tries triggered by the Trinity three quarters which came in consecutive restarts. Center Sachintha Dissanayaka made a successful attempt breaking through the gaps on the inside of the Thomian defense and passed through an offload to Rahul Karunathilake who planted the ball under the posts. The next attempt was by the Wing three Lochana Girihagama who covered almost 50 meters warding off a couple on his own before he passed on to Ratwatte who scored the third. Both tries being converted added up another 14 more points to escalate the home team’s score to 26-3.
The Thomians however came out on a changed game plan towards the dying minutes of the first half as they went all out to defend their line and were able to counter the fast running Trinity three quarters. Trinity having established a solid lead were yet able to increase that score line as just minutes before half time, Isuru Rangala went over for his second with the assistance of Saranga Gunathilake who covered almost 50m. With the conversion not going through, the points tally at half time stood at 31-3
With a considerably high deficit being extended, the prediction on the cards was Trinity to amass a mammoth stand at the end of play. But the Thomians clearly knowing their intentions made their plans fall void as they defended their line to the optimum level. The second half was a different gameplay in comparison and STC were giving their hearts out in the defense to secure their line and to prevent any Trinitian surpassing. Their fullback Herath together with fly half Ferdinando were holding firm ground in a highly commendable manner. Due credit should go to the Thomian forwards as they did their job countering the oncoming attack. Anyhow Trinity came up with their single try for the second half as Lochana Girihagama crossed over and with a conversion yielding good, Trinity drew further up to 38-3.
However for all the hard work STC put in and for all the efforts in holding their line, they were gifted with a consolation try just before the final whistle as J. Kasun crossed over for STC’s only try which was later converted by Ferdinando. (38-10)
The game concluded with Trinity gaining possession of the De Seram trophy after a lapse of one year. The game though was swift moving in the first 25-30 minutes experienced a series of stoppages as both teams committed faults in ball handling towards the remaining parts of the game. It was butter fingers from both teams and Trinity missed out on a couple of occasions due to this. Trinity substituted almost their entire bench this evening and the absence of a proper replacement bench affected the Thomians adversely as play was halted for injuries continuously and the Thomian skipper being taken out in the very first ten minutes due to an injury no doubt affected the Thomians gravely.
Full time 38-10
ThePapare Player of the match :Trinity’s Sachintha Dissanayaka
