Trinity College beat Wesley College by 45 points to 07 as they collected their points through six tries, three conversions and three penalties to a solitary try scored and converted by Wesley.
Wesley College kicked off the proceedings and gained good ground early on through their forwards. On the contrary Trinity College were making a lot errors in the opening few minutes of the game.
It took about five minutes for Trinity who won a penalty in the opposite half to have star player and skipper Tarinda Ratwatte collect a ball from a clean ruck and pass it to center Shehan Perera who committed a few defenders and gave it to winger Giriagama to put the final touches to round off a superbly worked try by the forwards and the line in cohesion. Ratwatte missed the conversion.( TCK 05, WC 00)
Trinity won another a penalty when a Wesley player was found guilty of not releasing the tackler and Ratwatte made no mistake with the kick.( TC 08 WC 00)
Couple of minutes later, Trinity full back Saranga Gunathileka who has been in great form lately scored the second try for his team after some good work done by the back line. Extras were added by Ratwatte. ( TCK 15 WC 00)
The boys from Kandy should have added more points to the score board but made too many careless mistakes. A moment later Trinity won another penalty and Ratwatte made no mistake with it. (TCK 18 WC 00)
In the final play of the half Wesley College won a penalty in the 10 meter line in the opposite half and after a pick and go move. A. Perera collected the ball and found a gap in the opposite defense to score the first try for Wesley. Fly Half Joe Tillekarathne added the extras. (TCK 18 WC 07)
Half Time Trinity College 18 Wesley College 07
Trinity kicked off the second half and was ruthless in their attack and after a scrum was evenly contested by both teams the loose ball was quickly collected and scored through Scrum Half Ryan Weerakoon. Ryan moving from the Centre position to Scrum half seemed to have adapted to his new position well. Ratwatte missed the conversation. (TCK 23 WC 07)
The boys from Kandy should have scored through prop forward A. Karunatilleka who had ball in hand and had three of his players waiting for the final pass but intended to go on his own and knock the ball forward. But the referee who was playing advantage took play back to award a penalty for an offside position by Wesley and Ratwatte made no mistake with the conversion. ( TCK 26 WC 07)
Ratwatte collected the ball from the scrum of his team and passed inside to his winger Giriagama who cut inside and found a gap and scored a wonderfully worked try which was surely a well-trained move. Ratwatte added the extras. (TCK 33 WC 07)
A moment later substitute Scrum half Nadinha Rediwahaliyedda collected the loose ball and scored easily. Ratwatte missed the conversion. ( TCK 38 WC 07)
Just before the final whistle Trinity wrapped up and sealed the game with arguably the try of the match through their winger Giriagama who collected the ball from Ratwatte and ran seventy meters to score his hat-trick and his team’s sixth try.
Full time score- TCK 45(6T, 3C, 3P), WC 07(1T, 1C)
It was a complete team performance by Trinity College and their skipper Ratwatte who led from front and had a very good game so did hooker Skalasuriya, Fullback Gunathileka and winger Giriagama. Trinity next face arch rivals Royal College in the knockouts semifinal. With Neil Footie resigning by the end of the season the lads from Kandy will be desperately want to give a perfect send off to their coach by winning the milo knockouts cup championship.
ThePapare Player of the match – No 14 Lochana Giriagama – Trinity
Refree – Gamini Indrasena
