Thora run amok
View(s):Cannon R.S. de Saram shield
By David Stephens
Caught in the midst of a brutal battle of attrition against one of the principal forces of top division school rugby, S. Thomas’ College, declared clear underdogs before the match, displayed a stunning magnitude of courage and skill to spectacularly shock Trinity College 29 (2 goals, 5 penalties)-15 (3 tries), at Havelock Park yesterday.
The Thomians simply refused to be intimidated or back off throughout the match and fought fire with fire to send Winger Issa Ibrahim and Centre Harshaka Senanayake over the try line in the first and second halves respectively. Fly half and skipper Devin Jayasinghe was in sublime kicking form and converted both tries in addition to kicking through five penalties.
The Number 12s of S. Thomas’ and Trinity collide in their traditional rugby encounter played at Havelock Park in Colombo yesterday. - Pic by Amila Gamage
In stark contrast, full back Sanchana Shiek wielded a jinxed boot on the day, botching all of his kicks to cut out a forlorn figure on the field. The Trinitians however cannot be faulted too much, and were simply outplayed on the day. They did fight well nevertheless, scoring tries through prop Sanka Athulgama, second rower Umesh Samarasinghe and fly half Tarinda Ratwatte.
The Thomians were in hot water during the game’s opening exchanges, with Athulgama striking in just the second minute of the game with a scorching try down the wing which found the Thomian defence flat-footed.
A goalfest seemed imminent as the Trinitians poured forward, but skipper Jayasinghe calmed his side’s nerves with a well measured penalty to put the Thomians on the board. Barely two minutes passed before Trinity struck with another unconverted try, to have S. Thomas’ down 10-3.
But it seemed that whenever Trinity looked likely to break free the Thomians were there at their throats, holding them down determinedly. Their sustained pressure told on Trinity and the Thomians struck in the 22nd minute with their first try. Ibrahim broke lose after continued waves of attacks from S. Thomas’ to sail over the line. Jayasinghe did the honours from the spot. He added one more penalty to make it 13-10 S. Thomas’ at halftime.
The boys from Mount Lavinia continued their good work in the second half , stifling Trinity and breaking deep into their half. Jayasinghe converted two more excellent penalties to have Trinity pinned down at 19-10.
Trinity though struck back in the 24th minute with a darting try through the middle of the field. Jayasinghe however, once again added a penalty to have the Trinity’s supporters chewing nervously on their fingernails. At 22-15, with the match in its dying minutes, their hopes of any miracle comeback were dashed. Trinity gave the ball away meters from their try line and Senanayake tore across the try line to allow his skipper to put the cherry on a fine performance.
Under 18: Trinity 18 – STC 0
Under 16: Trinity 27 – STC 7
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