The Antonians continued with their impressive recent form when they beat D.S.Senanayake 16-14 in their Singer Schools Rugby League Plate encounter at Havelock Park earlier this evening.
In a game midst a typical torrential downpour, filled with plenty of thrilling errors, momentum between the two sides ebbed and flowed in the first half before the Antonians took control of the proceedings late in the game and they eventually outscored their visitors 16 points to 14.
The opening exchanges were evenly contested and it was not until the 28th minute when Chamod Wanasinghe added a penalty after the Dons were blown up for illegal play in a ruck. (SACK 03-00 DS)
DS was very much second best in the opening 40 as the Antonians, with their tails up, gave themselves a slight edge of 3-0 at halftime.
Half Time; St.Anthony’s 03 (1P) – 00 D.S.Senanayake
The Antonians continued to apply pressure after the half time, forcing a knock-on inside their opposition red zone, DS were punished for their mistake at the resulting scrum. Suhail pounced on the loose ball from the back of the scrum and the ball was recycled to Ishara Liyanage, who did excellent work in close quarters, getting the hands free in the tackle to offload for wing three-quarter Janidu Himsara to crash over from close-range. Wanasinghe failed to add the extras. (SACK 8-0 DS)
D. S. Senanayake vs St. Anthony’s College | ThePapare Stats Centre
ThePapare Match Centre
Antonians full back Chamod Wanasinghe extended the lead by another 3 points with a penalty after the DS lock was penalised for hands in the ruck. (SACK 11-0 DS)
St.Anthony’s continued to attack and 10 minutes later, Suhail Waseem found himself in space midway between the visitors’ 22 and their 10-metre line and showed the cover defence a clean pair of heels before crossing for his side’s fourth try after Mohommed Makarim had initially found space through a missed tackle by the DS center combination. (SACK 16-0 DS)
However in the dying minutes DS found their mojo for the first time in the game as they got close to the try line with a driving maul before the ball was spread wide where Hemasiri slipped through a gap with a clever little dummy exploiting enough space to dive over under the posts. His conversion cut back the deficit. (SACK 16-07 DS)
Points Table | Schools Rugby League 2018 Division I ‘A’ & ‘B’
Points Table of the Schools Rugby League 2018. Division IA and Division IIA. Royal Isipathana, Trinity, Wesley
Once again, Hemasiri got on the scoresheet with 1 minute to go with a seven-pointer after playing with advantage for over a minute, courtesy of a defender failing to roll away. A piece of individual brilliance from Akalanka brought D.S. inside the opposition’s red zone for Hemasiri to barge over. He added the extras to bring the score within two points. The referee then decided enough was enough as he blew the long whistle to bring the game to an end. (SACK 16-14 DS)
- ThePapare.com‘s Player of the Match: Suhail Waseem
Full Time; St.Anthony’s 16 (2T 2P) – 14 (2T 2C) D.S.Senanayake
- Referee: Aruna Shantha
Breakdown
St.Anthony’s – Suhail Waseem (1T) , Janidu Himsara (1T), Chamod Wanasinghe (2P)
D.S.Senanayake – Dinusha Hemasiri (2T 2C)Cautions and Send Off’s
St.Anthony’s – Janidu Himsara (Yellow) , Dhanujaya Senevirathne (Yellow)
D.S.Senanayake – Ishanka Kumara (Yellow)
