After a weeks’ break the Schools Rugby League 2013 recommenced today at several venues. Wesley College hosted St. Joseph’s College on a cloudy evening at CR & FC in a crucial encounter for both the teams.
Wesley started the game with the‘favorites’ tag being unbeaten so far in the league while Joes marched in with the ‘underdogs’ tag.
Joes kicked off from left to right and gave the warning to Wesley that they will play the big physical contact game by landing a high tackle to the Wesley captain in the 1st minute and gave away a penalty straight away and Wesley took the maximum out of it by getting into the Joes territory. 5 minutes into the first half, Wesley full back Lahiru Madusanka scored a brilliant try under the post passing by Josephian players with some individual brilliance and Wesley skipper Rahul De Silva converted (Wesley 7- Joes 0 ).
Wesley with their speedy three quarters struck again with an eye catching try by winger Namal Rajakaruna near the right corner flag and Rahul De Silva used all his experience and converted. ( Wesley 14 – Joes 0 ).
Josephians missed a high number of tackles and made errors at crucial breakdowns and gave away possession to the opponents but St. Joseph’s came back and started to show class with their lanky centre Hasuru Gunawardena who got an offload from his prop forward and made a 60 meter sprint and scored under the posts. Dulith Fernando had no problem with the conversion. ( Wesley 14 – Joes 7 )
Joes attacked with their strong forwards and won a penalty against the Wesley forwards at the 20 minute mark and Josephian skipper opted for 3 points and the Josephian fly half Dulith Fernando put over the penalty and reduced the deficit to 4 points. ( Wesley 14- Joes 10 )
Josephian forwards were superb in the scrums and gave Wesley forwards a hard outing but the Josephian flanker was penalized for not releasing the ball at the 25 minute mark and Wesley Rahul De Silva put over an easy kick and stretched their lead to 7 points. ( Wesley 17- Joes 10 )
Wesley gained momentum through some serious attacking play by their speedy line and found space in the Josephian defense at the 30 minute mark by scoring their 3rd try for the evening with their terrific full back Lahiru Madusanka who ended up scoring under the posts. De Silva converted. (Wesley 24-10 )
Just before the half time whistle St. Joseph’s found their ever dependable leader Jason Melder crashing through the determined Wesley defense and scoring near the posts completing an impressive phases off strong forwards play. The conversion by Dulith Fernando sailed through smoothly.
Half Time : Wesley 24 – St. Joseph’s 17
After the lemons both teams were looking to defend with great concentration and put pressure in the set plays. Both teams lost possession in vital breakdowns for their handling errors. After 10 minutes of scrappy play Wesley skipper De Silva continued his great game by charging down a kick from Josephian fly half Dulith Fernando in the Joes territory and successfully scoring under the posts; he converted his own try. ( Wesley 31- Joes 17 )
Josephian fitness levels were tested fiercely by the skillful Wesley backs and they made the Josephians life difficult with their stunning attacking play but after many phases of courageous defense put up by the Josephians,
Wesley managed to score their 5th try after a quick penalty taken at the center of the ground and working their line perfectly before punting down the ball towards the touch line which was chased down by the Wesley center before offloading to T.H.Maduwantha who nicely sealed the 3rd win for the lads from Campbell Park at the 25 minute of the second half with an easy touch down. Rahul De Silva kept his 100% kicking rate for the day by converting. ( Wesley 38 – Joes 17)
The chances of a comeback was fading away for the Josephians as the clock ticked to the 30th minute in the second half but after wheeling another scrum by the big made Josephian forwards, the Blue & White College received a penalty near the try line and the scrum half took a quick tap and passed the ball to the gigantic prop forward Stephan Gregory who bulldozed over the Wesley defense line to score the 3rd Josephian try of the match. Dulith Fernando converted with ease. ( Wesley 38 – Joes 24 )
With the final whistle not too far away Wesley wing three quarter Usman Thaha was shown the yellow card for a late tackle and was sent off for the rest of the match. Referee Nizam Jamaldeen blew the long whistle to a game which was dominated by the Impressive Double Blues who registered their 3rd win of the season and becoming a strong title contenders. Boys from Darley road must go back to their drawing boards and find the winning ways again in order to stay in the top league.
