St. Joseph’s College regained the Rev.Fr Basil Weeratunga Memorial Shield after 15 long years when they defeated St. Peter’s College by 17-10 points in a thrilling Schools Rugby League 2015 encounter worked out at CR & FC grounds on Saturday.
Determined Josephian unit led by number 8 Taariq Salih produced a scintillating second-half rally to out-class the boys from Bambalapitiya amidst a packed house to win their annual rugby ‘Big Match’ after 1999 when Joes last won under Lakshitha Gunaratne’s captaincy.
The Peterite fly-half Sandesh Jayawickrama kicked-off the proceedings on a perfect evening for open rugby. The talented Peterite back line which won them the Schools All Island 7s title few months back got their work cut out from the word go when they continuously attacked the Josephian line but the boys from Maradana held their arch-rivals with stunning display of defense in the first 10 minutes of the match.
After 14 minutes of vigorous classic schools rugby, an unfortunate brawl between the two teams occurred and the officials of both schools had to intervene to stop the fight and referee Irshad Cader sent two players namely Vinul Fernando (SJC) and Ranith Silva (SPC) to the ‘Naughty Chair’ for 10 minutes.
Joes got the first opportunity to put points on the board in the 20th minute when Petes were penalized for hands in the ruck but the Josephian full back Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya failed to bisect the uprights. The Peterite captain and play maker, Kevin Dixon put his team in the lead few minutes later when he fired across a 24-meter penalty. (SJC 00 – SPC 03)
The first try of the match came in the 29th minute when the Peterite outside center, Ramesh Fernado broke the Josephian defense with a cracking run through the 10-12 channel and his timely pass to Kevin ‘Kutty’ Dixon put him in space to dash through and score. Dixon converted his own try with ease to extend the lead. (SJC 00 – SPC 10)
The Josephian mean machine started to kick start in the final 10 minutes of the first half when they were dominating the play inside the Peter’s 22’ and had possession of the ball but few handling errors deprived them from scoring points as an exhilarating half came to an end.
Half-Time: SJC 00 – SPC 10 (1T,1C,1P)
After the orange’s break, Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya recommenced the game and a poor knock-on from a Peterite player straight from the restart gave an easy passage to the Josephians into their 22’ and flanker Shehan Bopearachchi used the advantage and barged over for a superb try while their star player, Kevin Dixon got injured during the same phase. Kurumbalapitiya failed to add extra points. (SJC 05 – SPC 10)
The Peterites made unforced errors as their game plan was completely shattered with the loss of Dixon and the Josephian unit fought back gallantly with true team spirit. Peterite fly-half Sandesh Jayawickrama missed two regulation penalty kicks to the dismay of the Peterite supporters while the boys in blue & white were continuously using their heavy big-made forwards to gain over the territorial line.
As the game approached the last quarter, Peterites were down to 13 players when their center Ramesh Fernando and stand-off Sandesh Jayawickrama were sent to the sin-bin for dangerous tackles. The biggest player in the park, also known as the ‘Beast’, Stephan Gregory barged over the try-line after few phases of aggressive runs by their forwards and the pendulum slowing started to swing towards the Josephian side. Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya converted with ease to put his College in the lead for the first time. (SJC 12 – SPC 10)
The Josephians were all over the Peterites as the visitors were shell-shocked due to the brilliant rugby dished out by the hosts. In the 70th minute, Stephan Gregory was denied a second try when referee Irshad Cader did not award the try as the burly prop-forward was penalized for double movement. Few minutes later, scrum-half Suneth Chathuranga was also deprived a try when he was held up over the try line.
The Peterite team had no clear strategy to stop the marauding Josephians and in the 78th minute Josephian winger, Romesh Priyankara put the icing on the cake when he dived over in the right-corner to score a memorable try and secure a historical win. Kurumbalapitiya missed the conversion but the 15-year old hoodoo was finally broken under the leadership of hard-working Taariq Salih as the Josephians started their 2015 schools rugby season with a resounding win.
Full-Time: SJC 17 (3T,1C) – SPC 10 (1T,1C,1P)
ThePapare Man of the Match – Taariq Salih (Joes Captain/No.8)
After the game, Taariq shared his views exclusively with www.thepapare.com, “ It is the best feeling ever, all the boys played as a team and we always aimed at winning this game when we were at training.“
The Josephian head coach Bilal Yousuf expressed his kind words after the win with www.thepapare.com, “They believed themselves that they can win this crucial game. Breaking a 15-year winning streak is not easy, lot of mental toughness and courage were needed and they showed superb courage right throughout the 80 minutes.”
