Wesley survive late rally to beat S. Thomas’
View(s):Wesley College survived a fierce late rally from S. Thomas’ College before recording a thrilling 26-24 win in their Inter-Schools Under-19 League Rugby Tournament encounter worked off at Mount Lavinia yesterday.
The Wesleyites after having suffered back-to-back defeats in their previous two outings came out with their best performance to mesmerize their opponents while collecting their points from two converted tries and four penalties.
The Thomians after trailing 7-13 at half time and 7-23 midway in the second half came up with a magnificent performance during the last few minutes before they eventually fell short by two points. In fact, the home side had the satisfaction of scoring more tries than their opponents but yet that was not god enough as they responded with four tries and two conversions.
Wesley were cruising along towards a convincing win at one stage after having built up a commanding 23-7 lead going into the last few minutes of the game. However, S. Thomas’ came back strongly with two successive tries from A. Cader and S.G. Perera with T.B. Eriyagama converting one try.
Earlier, Wesley got off to a flying start with two superb first half tries from R.L. Fernando and S.N. Ogbebor with L.D. de Silva touching down for the home side during this period with A. Hettiarachchi adding the extra points. But the visitors consolidated their position and added another try to their tally shortly after the break through T. Srithesh.
The Wesleyites despite the pressure coming from their opponents managed to stay ahead thanks to two vital penalties from T. H. Walpitage.