St Joseph’s second half burst too much for Wesley
The second half burst of St Joseph’s enabled them to coast to a comfortable 33 points to 15 win over Wesley and end their last league campaign of the Singer U20 Schools rugby tournament on a winning note in the match played at Longdon Place yesterday.
Pic by Anuradha Bandara
The Josephians after trailing 9-10 at the breather made up their points through two goals, two tries and three penalties to the one goal, one try and a penalty scored by the Wesleyites.However it was the Wesleyites who dominated the first half even though the Josephians surged ahead through two penalties booted over by full back Shamila Kurumbalapitiya to lead 6-0.
Wesley struck back to take the lead with center Danister Gunatilleke going over for a try and second row Omar Kuthubdeen adding the extra points. Later in a ding dong battle that ensured saw Wesley being offered a penalty which Kuthubdeen made no mistake helping the Campbell Park boys to further increase their lead.
The Josephians made every effort to breach the defence of their opponents but was unable to succeed. Ten minutes away from the short whistle Josephian full back Kurumbalapitiya succeeded to boot over a penalty that came their way and no further scoring being done the short whistle was blown with Wesley holding on to a wafer thin one point lead 10-9.
The resumption saw the Josephians coming into the game with a different game plan which saw them going into the attack. Back to back tries within a space of five minutes by prop forward Stephan Gregory of which Kurumbalapitiya making one conversion enabled the Darley Road boys to go ahead.
The Josephians stretched their lead further through skipper and No 8 Tariq Saleh’s under the post try which gave Kurumbalapitiya an easy conversion for them to lead 28-10. The approach of the Wesleyites were much more contrast than in the first half as they were rattled and were unable to make any headway. Meanwhile the Josephians taking advantage of it put their opponents under pressure as they almost put the issue beyond doubt with center Romesh Priyankara going over for an unconverted try.
With just under seven minutes of play left the Wesleyites having given their opponents a lead of 23 points was left with the daunting task. But they were able to breach their defence to score a consolation try scored by flanker Shehzad Hamidon but it was too late as it could prevent the Josephians cruising through to an easy win.
Referee – Pradeep Fernando