The much awaited second round got underway last weekend where all 4 matches in the Division ‘A was played in Colombo.
Royal demolish Kingswood
The unbeaten Royalists continued to dominate the league by thrashing Kingswood College another 49 points to 7 at Royal Complex in front of their home crowd. They scored 8 tries with 3 conversions and a penalty to Kingswood’s only goal. Royal’s chief ball carrier Supun Warnakulasuriya was on full force scoring 4 tries for his school to lead the try scorer’s table overtaking the Green try machine Omalka.
The Reid Avenue boys looked threatening from the start and it was quite evident that Bradby is not the only silverware that they are hungry for.
Pathana power too much for Thora
The boys from Havelock town who is the other unbeaten team in the league were on try fest at CR & FC. They ran circles around the Thomian 15 to score ten tries and quite surprisingly gaoling 6 of them which is the highest conversion rate so far in a game for the green lads.
The Isipathana captain Omalka who scored two or more tries in every game did not score a single try in this match which is also quite surprising for their fans.
Even though Isipathana won this match quite convincingly, they were playing under protest. The following statement was published on PATHANA POWER facebook page on the day of the game.
“The second round of the inter school rugby league season kicks off today with Isipathana taking on St.Thomas at CR&FC.
The defending champions Isipathana has sent a protest letter to the referees association against the decision of allocating the controversial referee “Priyantha Gunaratne” for the match which is to be played between Isipathana Vs St.Thomas”
“Prior to the rugby season kickoff a Circular was sent by the head of the schools rugby association to all the rugby playing schools stating that a Coach of a school cannot referee any inter-school rugby match. Saying that “Priyantha Gunaratne” is the rugby coach of St.Anthonys College Kandy. Why this double standard when it is Isipathana?
Science test was too hard for Joes
The high riding Joes were bought down by the spirited Science outfit at Mount Lavinia in another crunch game last Saturday. It was merely a ding dong battle as they game kept the spectators of both teams on their toes from the start. Even though the St.Joseph’s played minus their play maker and vice-captain, they led 14-12 in the half time. However it was Science who had the last-laugh by scorning three tries in the second half to keep a healthy lead of 10 points until the 70th minute. The Josephian burly prop forward Stephen Gregory’s hat-trick was in vain as Science no-8 and Tharindu Maduranga scored two tries each out of five to give their team the most deserving victories.
There was also a news story on a national daily two days ago about a Vice Captain of a leading catholic school who ditched his rugby team after demanding for the captaincy. This story also has enough leads to determine the school and the player involved as the said player also did not play the game last weekend for his school.
The Peterite Bamba Brigade runs over the Trinity Army
They first said that the 2011 Bradby Second leg will be repeated in Colombo. Yes it was a repeat, but in the Right Royal style. Then they said that the wounded lions will be dangerous. Yes they were very dangerous … but only in the first half.
The 3rd oldest school’s rugby encounter – Trinity vs St.Peter’s rugby encounter kicked off at Bambalapitiya on Saturday. This match was also played for the Deshamanya Maj.General Dennis Perera memorial cup which was introduced last year which Trinity won at Pallakalle.
Trinity started game with a try in the second minute and there after they dominated in all departments in the game in the first half. Trinity’s Boyagoda kept feeding the ball to his line in every given opportunity and scored the second try for his team and they had a healthy lead of 20 points to nil in the 25th minute. Peterites starting the game minus their play maker captain Kevin Kutty due to a hamstring injury took the field limping and scored the first try for his team in the next five minutes. Thereafter the burly lock forward Rahal Delpachithra barged his way to the try line off a beautiful maul to reduce the lead to 10 points just before half time.
The Peterite ace place kicker Sandesh Jayawickrama booted a penalty in the second half to give his team 3 points more in the 50th minute. This was followed by an unwanted argy-bargy incident between the Peterite Winger and a trinity player led in to an almost heated fight resulted in referee Irshad Carder sending Peterite fly half Sandesh Jayawickrama and vice captain Nishon Perera to sin bin. Trinity immediately capitalised on the 13 man advantage and scored a try off a ruck to extend their score to 25 points.
At this time, Kevin Dickson stepped in as the fly half and kicked the ball high into corners of the field and made sure his fast wingers to charge that ball. This gave a much needed try for the Bamba Brigade as Diyath Perera collected a loose ball to sprint 25 meters to score under the post and Kevin successfully goaled the try to give his team the 20th point.
Then came the winning try of the game where Kevin moved his entire backline towards the open side before a scrum inside the 40m to continue his high cross kicks. The Trinity backs too followed the opponents leaving only their winger on the blind side. But the Peterite Number 8 Mark De Silva was clever enough to break off from the blind to send a pass to his scrum half Avishka Heenpella to score the winning try of the game. Kevin goaled the try as well for his team and Peterites also booted another penalty in the dying minutes of the game to seal the game 30 points to 25.
This Saturday the Peterites will face the unbeaten Royalists at Bamba while Thora will meet Joes at Havies and Trinity will meet their home town rivals Kingswood at Pallakalle. On Sunday Isipathana will be meeting Science at Mount and the rugby fans around the globe can watch all these games live on www.thepapare.com
Still the league is up for grabs. Who will it be ?
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