Established teams through to next round
Isipathana played a cool headed game against St. Aloysius before running away with a 45-7 win - Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
The Under-19 Schools Rugby Sevens kicked off at the Royal Complex yesterday. The tournament was robbed of a lot of glamour by the fact that leading exponents of rugby such as Trinity and St. Peter’s, as well as Dharmaraja and Ananda, all gave it a miss.
As expected some of the lesser-known schools fell by the wayside. Today’s quarter-finals, however, will be chock full of interest as some close tussles have been lined up.
St. Anthony’s-S. Thomas’, St. Joseph’s-Science, Vidyartha-Royal and Isipathana-Prince of Wales should be well contested games. On yesterday’s performance, Vidyartha look a pleasing prospect. Though they beat Piliyandala Central and Zahira by margins of 12 points, they showed an understanding of what sevens rugby is all about.
They side-stepped and handled the ball well, which was something Zahira didn’t do against them, to their detriment. Prince of Wales had impressive wins over Eheliyagoda and Nalanda. The Thomians played good running rugby with skipper Christian de Lille taking the spotlight.
The Anthonians had only one outing. Mohamed Shabeer, Suhail Waseem and Liyanage were quite impressive. Royal were not called upon to do too much. But together with Science, Kingswood and St. Joseph’s they ran up totals in excess of forty.
The Kingswood-Josephian game was a much anticipated one. While the Joes ran in four tries in the first half, Kingswood replied with a goal in the second. However, the much-stronger Maradana lads had the measure of their opponents from Kandy.
Results
St. Anthony’s 31 beat Lumbini 5
S. Thomas’ 26 beat Mahanama 5
Science 47 beat Moratu Vidyalaya 0
St. Joseph’s 41 beat Richmond 0
Prince of Wales 31 beat Eheliyagoda Central 17
Royal 41 beat Thurstan 7
Maliyadeva 41 beat Mahanama 5
Isipathana 45 beat St. Aloysius 7
CWW Kannangara 21 beat Moratu Vidyalaya 7
Kingswood 47 beat Richmond 5
Vidyartha 17 beat Piliyandala Central 5
Nalanda 12 beat Eheliyagoda Central 5
D.S. Senanayake 19 beat St. Aloysius 0
S. Thomas’ 33 beat Maliyadeva 5
Science 17 beat CWW Kannangara 7
St. Joseph’s 29 beat Kingswood 7
Vidyartha 19 beat Zahira 7
Prince of Wales 32 beat Nalanda 0
Science 36 beat D.S. Senanayake 0