The dust has settled on the first round of the Singer 2014 schools rugby tournament and the Cup qualifiers and the ones relegated to the Plate contenders are now known and here’s a review of the games in the 1st round.
It’s been a long season which having begun on 20th March is continuing even into May with the 2nd round yet to begin. The fancied teams were divided into 2 segments 1 A and 2 A, in the new format that would have teams competing for a Cup and a Plate.
Segment 1A comprised of 6 teams namely St. Peter’s, Kingswood, St. Thomas’, Science, St. Anthony’s and Dharmarajah while segment 2A comprised of Isipathana, Trinity, Royal, St. Joseph’s, Wesley and D S Senanayake.
The first week saw 2 matches played with St. Peter’s hosting Kingswood at Longdon Place and Trinity meeting DS Senanayake at Pallekele. The Petertie – Kingswood match was a close affair and the result, a 14 all draw, was probably fitting, though the Kingswoodians should consider themselves lucky that the Petes opted not to attempt penalty conversions. In the other game played on the same day (20th March), Trinity simply massacred DS scoring 61 to nothing by DS.
St. Joseph’s opened their season with a win against Wesley at the CR grounds. Perhaps Wesley earned some praise from their supporters for coming back in the 2nd half after being down 0 – 17 at the breather but the Joes prevailed to record their first win 20 points to 10.
Isipathana, Royal, Dharmarajah, St. Thomas’, Science and St. Anthony’s all came out for the 1st time for the season on 23rd March. Isipathana and Royal featured in a nail biter at the CR grounds with fortunes swinging from one side to the other and Isipathana scraping through to a 15 – 14 win.
In the Thomian – Rajan game, St. Thomas’ prevailed at Bogambara with a 30 – 15 win over a Dharmarajah side that is a far cry from their very successful league winning side last year. In the other game played on 23rd March, Science recorded a 29 – 8 win in their home turf against the Anthonian Eagles who traveled down to Mount Lavinia.
The second week saw the Kingswoodins recording a massive 50 – 10 victory on 29th March against their hometown rivals Dharmaraja at Bogambara. On the same day at Pallekele Trinity recorded a 34 – 17 victory against the Josephians who played a gallant game leading 14 – 9 at the halfway point.
In the matches played on 30th March, the Thomians beat the Anthonians at Havelock Park 25 – 10 and the Peterites recorded their 2nd win for the season scoring a 27 – 22 win over a determined Science team at Mount. Royal also featured in a game on the same day at their home grounds beating a determined Wesley side 22 – 10.
In the only match played on 31st March, Isipathana recorded the season’s highest score of 85 (and the season’s highest victory margin of 73 points) against a hapless DS Side who scored only 12 points to give Isipathanians a massive victory.
In the following weak St. Anthony’s recorded their 1st win for the season beating Dharmarajah 39 – 16 at Bogambara on 4th April while Kingswood beat Science 29 – 10 also in Kandy the next day. The Joes almost sprang a surprise on the Royalists when when they went down 11 – 14 at the CR grounds on 5th April.
In the Wesley vs. DS match played at CR, Wesley cruised to a 42 – 10 victory on 7th April. The much awaited Peterite – Thomian match was played at Havlock Park on 10th April and turning all predictions upside down the Petes recorded an impressive 44 – 12 win against a flat footed Thomian side.
The schools took a break for the Sinhala New Year and the resumption of the season saw 2 unbeaten teams Isipathana meet Trinity on 25th April. When the final whistle was blown Trinity though having the better of possession and territory had lost their unbeaten tag with Isipathana winning 21 – 17.
In the following week St. Peter’s met Dharmarajah at the Air Force grounds on 30th April and the Peterites recorded their third victory for the season 41 – 15. On 2nd May DS suffered another big loss when they went down to Royal 0 – 60 at the Royal College sports complex while on the same day Isipathana recorded their fourth victory in as many matches for the season, this time against the Joes, 24 – 8 at Havelock Park.
3rd of May saw Science meet St. Thomas’ at the Science College grounds at Mount Lavinia and Science beat their home town rivals 29 – 7. The same day saw St. Anthony’s play host to Kingswood at Nittawala which was won by the Gentlemen from Kingswood 37 – 18. The third match played on the same day was the Trinity – Wesley game at Pallekele in which Trinity recorded an unimpressive victory 15 – 9.
The last week’s matches of the schools rugby season were important for those in the relegation zone and keen to avoid being pushed in to the Plate Group and of course there was the 1st leg of the Bradby which is a tournament game.
St. Joseph’s met DS at the CR grounds on 9th May and won the encounter 12 – 5, though expected to do better. Of the 5 matches scheduled for play on 10th of May, the Dharmarajah – Science match did not take place as Dharmarajah are alleged to have entered players who were not qualified to play. An inquiry is to be held next week.
The Bradby encounter between Royal and Trinity saw the lads from Kandy recording a handsome victory of 28 – 16, at the Royal College sports complex. Despite protests by the Royal rugby authorities and a request by them to change the allocated referee, it must be said the referee Dimithri Gunasekera did an excellent job with the whistle. It was heartening to note the the Rugby Referees’ Association standing firm on their decision to allocate Gunasekera for this important match.
The Petes traveled to Kandy for their game against the Anthonians and had the Eagles caged at Nittawala beating them 32 – 17. Also in Kandy, the Thomians suffered yet another blow to their pride when they went down to the Kingswoodians by a massive margin of 8 – 40, at Bogambara. The Weslites gave a brave display against the Isipathanians scoring 19 points in the 2nd half before succumbing 22 – 25 at CR grounds.
This brought the curtain down on the 1st round of the Singer schools rugby matches and while St. Peter’s, Kingswood and Isipathana remain unbeaten the following teams have qualified for the 2nd round to compete for the Cup:
Segment 1 A
Kingswood and St. Peter’s with 24.5 points
Science with 13.5 points (a decision regarding the Dharmarjah match is pending)
St. Thomas’ with 14.5 points
Segment 2 A
Isipathana with 26.5 points
Trinity with 22.5 points
Royal with 18 points
St. Joseph’s with 13.5 points
This leaves the following teams relegated to play in the Bowl segment:
St. Anthony’s and Dharmarajah from Segment 1 A and Wesley and DS from Segment 2 A.
An exciting 2nd round is awaited by the very enthusiastic schools rugby lovers in Sri Lanka with none daring to predict an eventual winner.
