Thoras late burst too much for St Joseph’s
The late burst by S. Thomas’ proved to be too much for St. Joseph’s who succumbed to a 39-17 defeat in their Lady Jayatilleke Shield rugby encounter played at the Havelock Park yesterday.
The win also saw the Thomians regaining the Shield which they last won in 2010.
The Thoras who held on to a slender one point lead (13-12) at the short whistle made up their points through four goals a try and two penalties to a goal and two tries by the Josephians.
The Josephians went into the lead in the first 15 minutes through two tries with the first being posted by skipper and No.8 Jason Melder and winger Janith Chanaka and Dulith Fernando converting one but from there on it was the Thoras all the way. The Thomians began their scoring with two penalties within a space of three minutes booted over by skipper and fly half Devin Jayasinghe helping reduce the Josephians’ lead. They took over the lead with a peach of a try coming from centre Hasika Senanayake with Devin making no mistake with the conversion for the Thoras to lead 13-12.
St. Joseph’s got an opportunity of surging ahead three minutes before the short whistle but a penalty offered which was of kicking range saw Dulith’s kick going astray.
The turn around saw the two teams making scrappy moves and throwing away scoring opportunities before the Thomians succeeded in the 15th minute through a left corner flag try by Hasika Senanayake which was his second that initiated from a five metre scrum.
Sipper Devin added the extra points making the conversion from a difficult angle for Thoras to increase their lead to 20-12. Seven minutes later the Josephian skipper Jason Melder went over for his second try to decrease their deficit which went unconverted. The Thomians undeterred went into the attack and put their opponents under tremendous pressure. They succeeded in scoring back to back tries within a space of five minutes which almost sealed the game for them
The first came from second row S. Perera and the second by D. Deshapriya with Devin converting one of these which gave the Thoras a 15 point lead 32-17.
Later the Thomians hit the last nail in the coffin in the last minute of the game with a try scored by winger Nayanesh Weerasinghe with Devin adding the extra points to seal the game 39-17.
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