St. Anthony’s College Kandy secured another victory under their belt as they went on to beat DS Senanayaka College 44-20 in their Plate Championship game held at the Nittawela Stadium recently.
Both teams having being relegated from the top tier played for a win as they embarked the final weekend intending to proceed through the top standings. The game saw a start with St. Anthony’s College attacking from the very first minute. With five minutes on the clock, the Antonian Wing three quarter Kushal Rodrigo scored off a quick tap which was within a 10 meter distance from the try line. The unconverted try gave them an early lead to what looked to be the foundation of a high scoring encounter but their opponents weren’t too obliging to give away.
A penalty off the boot of Ashraff Muzni of DS brought them close to the Antonian stand but their counterpart’s did not let things go their way. A quick tap by Rodrigo made him repeat his earlier act and cross over for his second try. With DIlan Jayatisa not being able to convert the try, the score remained at 10-3. Whilst the St. Anthony’s left wing was busy scoring, it was time the other wing registered his name on the score board. A perfectly executed interception by Chanuka Ranaraja gave him enough space to creep through the DS defense while covering 70 meters to score under the posts. Minutes after the restart of this spectacle try, it was their skipper #8 Dilan Numan who made his way to the try line via a break in the scrum to score right under. With Jayatissa kicking one out of the two tries, the home team took a huge leap on the leap to wind up at 22-3.
The Gold & Blacks came back fighting in the dying stages of the first half as they utilized one of their set pieces and lobbied the ball over to Sachinka Abesekara who scored. With flyhalf Muzni adding the two points, the score stood 22-10.
The first few phases of the second half seemed to be going DS’s way which looked to be that they had adhered to their coach’s advice to work the ball through rather than to attack via their forwards. Their efforts proved effective when Center Thilakaratna made his way to the try line which was assisted by an offload pass by Flyhalf Muzni. The unconverted try sliced the deficit to just 7 points (22-15).
St. Anthony’s continued their dominance over their counterparts as tries kept coming from all around the ground. Kushal Rodgrigo the Antonian Wing Three was having a good time on the field as he crossed over for two more tries to record a total of four tries under his name. Skipper Dilan Numan went over for his second while all three of these went unconverted. (37-15).
DS replied with a consolation try through a rolling maul in the last few minutes to put them through to 20 points via the efforts of their scrum half Dilshan Lakshitha. To summarize the day’s proceedings the Antonian lock forward scored off another yet successful scrum breaks under the post. With a successful conversion through, the game ended at 44-20.
It was a passive game of rugby here at Nittawela with referee having forced to stop play at regular intervals due to cardinal errors of ball handling conceded by both teams. The game was not fast moving but the win here at Nittawela was a valuable win for the home team St. Anthony’s as they advanced through to the final week.
The Papare judges Kushal Rodrigo of St. Anthony’s to be the most valued player of the match.
