Cambrians up with a impressive performance
St. Peter’s, Trinity, Royal Colombo, St. Anthony’s Katugastota, Prince of Wales’, St. Joseph’s, Isipathana and D.S. Senanayake colleges remained unbeaten on completion of first day to advance to the Cup quarterfinals of the Milo Schools Under-18 10-a-side Rugby Tournament played at the Royal College Sports Complex in Colombo yesterday. Today, the second and final day of the competition will kick off with the Cup quarters as St. Peter’s and Trinity are slotted to take on each other in the opening match. St. Anthony’s are pitted to meet the impressive Prince of Wales’ side as Royal and St. Joseph’s will lock horns in the third game of the Cup quarters before the final game between Isipathana and D.S. Senanayake. The winners will advance to the Cup semi-finals while the losing quarterfinalists will be drafted into the Plate semi-finals.
Action at yesterday Under-18 Tens. Pic by R. Perera
In the Bowl quarterfinals line-up neighbours CWW Kannangara MV and Wesley will compete in the first game followed by the games of Dharmapala Pannipitiya vs Kingswood, Lalith Athulathmudali MV vs Mahanama and Ananda vs Science. The bottom seeded teams from the eight groups will play in the Shield quarterfinals. The matches scheduled are: St. Benedict’s vs St. Thomas’ Matale, Thurstan vs Vidyartha, Piliyandala Central vs Maliyadeva and Nalanda vs Royal Panadura.
St. Peter’s who competed from Group ‘A’ alongside St. Benedict’s and CWW Kannangara MV was impressive yesterday with clinical displays to record wins by 28-0 and 29-0 respectively against group rivals. The Peterites had big names that represented their First XV side last season and are slotted as one of the favourites to clinch the main title.
Trinity recorded the best performance of the day, thrashing group rivals St. Thomas’ College Matale by a massive margin of 65-0 in just 15 minutes. But in their second game from Group ‘B’ against Wesley College, the Trinitians was scrappy, yet managed to pull off a close win by 17-14. Prince of Wales’ were one of the less-known teams to impress yesterday. The Cambrians competing from Group ‘D’ were able to get the better off group rivals, all three teams from the hills, Dharmaraja, Kingswood and Vidyartha. They dominated the entire game against Dharmaraja before claiming the victory by 22-0 and followed their good form to beat Kingswood 17-5 and Vidyartha 19-0. Interestingly Dharmaraja, the reigning Schools Under-20 League Champions, succumbed to Vidyartha by 5-0 before pulling out from the tournament, handing a walkover to Kingswood.
Royal competing from Group ‘E’ recorded identical outcomes against minnows Lalith Athulathmudali MV and Piliyandala Central before thrashing a mediocre St. Sylvester’s side later in the day. The Royalists recorded their first win by a margin of 22-5 against the school from Mt. Lavinia and recorded the same tally against Piliyandala Central who failed to cross the line. In the third game the Royalists scored 46 points against the Kandy schools that remained at nil.
St. Anthony’s Katugastota beat Dharmapala Pannipitiya and Thurstan from Group ‘C’ while St. Joseph’s from Group ‘F’ smashed Maliyadeva 47-0 and edged Mahanama by 7-0 to remain unbeaten. Isipathana were forceful in both their games of Group ‘G’ as they handed Maroons rivals, Ananda and Nalanda, defeats of similar style. In the first game against Ananda they scored 33 points before going on to score 36 points against Nalanda while preventing both opponents from scoring. D.S. Senanayake who competed from Group ‘H’ impressed to record a comprehensive 28-0 win against Royal Panadura before recording a thrilling 7-5 win against giant killers Science College.
The tournament will continue today at the same venue from 8.30am with the commencement of the Cup quarter-final encounters. The quarter-finals of the Bowl and Shield segments will follow soon afterwards and will stop for an hour-long lunch break. The games will recommence from 1.20 pm with the semi-finals of the Shield, Bowl, Plate and Cup segments. The finals of the four segments will begin from 3.30pm.
Results of Day 1:
St. Peter’s beat St. Benedict’s 28-0, Trinity beat St. Thomas’ Matale 65-0, St. Anthony’s Katugastota beat Dharmapala Pannipitiya 24-0, Kingswood beat Vidyartha 12-7, Prince of Wales’ beat Dharmaraja 22-0, Royal Colombo beat Lalith Athulathmudali MV 22-5, Piliyandala Central beat St. Sylvester’s 7-5, St. Joseph’s beat Maliyadeva 47-0, Isipathana beat Ananda 33-0, Science beat Royal Panadura 17-5, CWW Kannangara MV beat St. Benedict’s 24-5, Wesley beat St. Thomas’ Matale 21-5, Thurstan drew with Dharmapala Pannipitiya 5-5, Prince of Wales’ beat Kingswood 17-5, Vidyartha beat Dharmaraja 5-0, Royal Colombo beat Piliyandala Central 22-0, Lalith Athulathmudali MV beat St. Sylvester’s 41-0, Mahanama beat Maliyadeva 43-0, Nalanda beat Ananda 17-5, D.S. Senanayake beat Royal Panadura 28-0, St. Peter’s beat CWW Kannangara MV 29-0, Trinity beat Wesley 17-14, St. Anthony’s beat Thurstan 14-0, Prince of Wales’ beat Vidyartha 19-0, Royal Colombo beat St. Sylvester’s 46-0, Lalith Athulathmudali MV beat Piliyandala Central 19-0, St. Joseph’s beat Mahanama 7-0, Isipathana beat Nalanda 36-0, D.S. Senanayake beat Science 7-5.
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