St. Joseph’s College survived a major scare by S. Thomas’ College to win their closely contested under 20 schools rugby division A cup championship game by 27 (3T,3C,2P) to 25 (3T,2C,2P) points as the Josephians retained the Lady Jayathilake shield at CR & FC grounds on Saturday evening.
The boys in blue and white were tipped favourites to win this game while all predictions were for another ‘forgettable’ outing for the College by the sea but they had other ideas. The Joes were led to the field by their full back Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya in place of their injured skipper Taariq Salih.
Thomian full back M A Jayawardene kicked off the game on a pleasant evening for open rugby. In a game where the referee dived in to his pockets as many as 7 times, Vishanka Rathnayake was the first to be yellow-carded for foul play in the 5th minute. Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya made no errors with the easy 15-meter penalty kick to give his team the early lead. (SJC 03 – STC 00)
The Thomians replied immediately after the Josephian line was caught off-side from the restart and half-back Dion Dias fired across a 25-meter penalty to even the scores. (SJC 03 – STC 03)
Both teams were playing attacking rugby and had a clear plan of spending more time on their opposition 22’. The first try of the match was scored by the host’s captain, Hashith Senanayake in the 17th minute when he dived over the try line after the Josephians missed a couple of crucial tackles. Dion Dias converted with ease. (SJC 03 – STC 10)
St. Joseph’s were down to 14 players in the 22nd minute of the match after referee sent the Josephian scrum-half Vimukthi Rahula to the sin-bin for an infringement near a scrum. Few minutes later, Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya capitalized perfectly on a penalty his side received after the boys from Mount Lavinia were caught offside. (SJC 06 – STC 10)
The well-oiled Josephian forward pack finally showed their colours in the 33rd minute when they successfully drove a rolling maul to help their try-scoring machine, Stephan Gregory to go over the big white line. Shamilka added the extra points to give the lead back to the visitors from Darley Road. (SJC 13 – STC 10)
Referee, Priyantha Gunarathne went to his pockets for the 3rd time in the first half when the Josephian hooker, Devon Fernando was infringed for continuous foul play in the 36th minute of the match. Dion Dias successfully booted over the 30-meter penalty kick to level the scores. (SJC 13 – STC 13)
Just before the half-time whistle, probably the biggest player in the current schools rugby season, Stephan Gregory was unfazed by the Thomian defence as he charged his way to score his 2nd try under the posts to bring much delight to the Josephian fan contingent. Shamilka converted with ease as the referee brought an end to the entertaining first half.
Half-Time: St. Joseph’s 20 (2T, 2C, 2P) – S. Thomas’ 13 (1T, 1C, 2P)
After the 10-minute break, stand-in Josephian captain, Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya restarted the game. The boys in blue and white, made a dream start to the 2nd half thanks to a powerful 30-meter run by their hard-working second-row forward Ravien De Silva as he touched down under the posts. Shamilka added the extra points to extend the lead. (SJC 27 – STC 13)
Joes were still down to 14 players and it was reduced to 13 soon after they scored their 3rd try as the star performer, Stephan Gregory was sent to the ‘Naughty Chair’ for a scrummaging error. The Thomians pounced on the 6-man pack to drive through and let their number 8 Sachitha Jayathilkae score an easy try near the left flank. Replacement scrum-half Senal De Silva missed the conversion. (SJC 27 – STC 18)
When the game was just 55-minutes old, an unfortunate incident happened when both teams got involved in a heated scuffle which made the referee show the ‘Yellow’ card to one of the Josephian water-carriers and sin-binned their replacement center, Gemunu Chethiya for 10 minutes and finally, Vishanka Rathnayake received his 2nd yellow and followed with the ‘Red’ card as his team was reduced to 14 players for the rest of the match.
Josephian outside-center Romesh Priyankara made a cracking run and evaded all the defenders to the try at the end of the 3rd quarter of the match but his try was not awarded for not grounding the ball properly and getting involved in an unnecessary altercation with an incoming defender.
The time was running out for the Thomians to come back and win the game with only 10 minutes left of the game. They initiated a comeback through as their replacement flanker Salman Jhan who barged over the try line with ease as the Josephian drift defense was breached. Ashwantha Herath made no errors with the simple conversion to reduce the deficit to only 2 points. (SJC 27 – STC 25)
The pressure was mounting from both camps as the next score would definitely seal the game for either team. But both teams were unable to add more points and the Thomian winger, Kasun Jayasuriya was added to the long-list of yellow cards in this game after he was penalized for a dangerous tackle.
The Thomians had the momentum behind them in the final few minutes but the Josephians defended sensibly to win the match but they had to toil hard for this win to keep their hopes alive to stay in the top four of the Cup competition. Incidentally, both Rev. Fr Basil Weeratunga shield and Lady Jayathilake shield were reunited at Darley Road after a lapse of 16 years.
Full-Time: St. Joseph’s College 27 (3T,3C,2P) – S. Thomas’ College 25 (3T,2C,2P)
The Referee – Priyantha Gunarathne
ThePapare Player of the Match – Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya
Points Scorers: (St. Joseph’s College)
Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya 12 points (3 conversions and 2 penalties), Stephan Gregory 10 points (2 tries), Ravien De Silva 5 points (1 try)
Points Scorers: (S. Thomas’ College)
Hashith Senanayake 5 points (1 try), Sachitha Jayathilake (1 try), Salman Jhan (1 try), Dion Diaz 8 points (2 penalties, 1 conversion), Ashwantha Herath 2 points (1 conversion)
