Trinity in supreme touch again with half century of points
Even the teamed up Science defenders could not prevent Trinity dominating - Pic by M.A. Pushpakumara
Trinity’s high scoring (52-7) win over Science at Havelock Park was the result of some very good work by the pack. Once the spade work had been done, the backs moved in and took over. Another feature of Trinity’s play was the superb backing up by the players.
Science tried their best but was outclassed. They contributed their due share to a slightly exciting first half. They attacked the line on a few occasions exchanging short, quick passes and were a little unfortunate that they couldn’t touch down even once.
Their exciting winger Sanjula Roshan hardly got a touch on the ball and was reduced to a purely defensive role.
The Trinitians were held to a 17-0 lead at half time. The Science lads did not play as well in the second half in which they conceded 35 points, despite quite a few players coming off the bench.
The star of the show for Trinity was their sturdily built centre Diluksha Dange who ran in three tries. For good measure, he also made two conversions.
Boyagoda did not score himself, but was here, there and everywhere. The visitors were fast, fit and were on the ball in a flash. They also put up a good defence and did not allow their line to be crossed.
Science started off well. Two players were almost on the line and looped pass from one to another was pushed away by a Trinitian. They then saw a 40 yard penalty not being made use of by fly half Mudalige.
After those lapses, Trinity dominated. They kicked ahead but there was no defender in sight. However one of the Science lads got to it and kicked it over the dead ball line. A minute later, skipper Nathan Yee emerged from the back of the scrum and passed to winger Rathnayake who did the rest.
Lashan Wijesooriya converted this for a 7-0 lead. The Trinity fly half was to put over five tries in all, as well as a penalty, making it a personal tally of 13.
Dange scored the first of his three tries when he swooped on a long pass from Wijesooriya, ran round the defence, cut in and touched down. He started the second half by scoring again. Unmarked on the wing, he seized the chance to go under the post (24-nil).
Weerakoon, who scored next, was held down short of the line. But he wriggled out of the defenders’ clutches and went over. Dange’s third try and Wijesooriya’s conversion took the score to 38.
Madena collected a pass that was slipped back, low and went through a gap to fall over. Trinity’s final try came from Ranaraja. In between, Science were awarded a penalty try which was put over by Mudalige.
Trinity scored seven goals and a penalty while the losers had to be content with a penalty try.
Coming on top of a 64-24 win over Wesley, the Kandy team has now run up a total of 116 points. While this hints at their potential as a team, rugby fans will have to await the First Leg of the Bradby to pass judgement on how they stand vis-à-vis the other teams.
Referee: Sunil Madugalle