Sports - Topsy turvey as Wesley stun St. Anthony’s

Topsy turvey as Wesley stun St. Anthony’s

Wesley - 17
St. Anthony’s - 11

By Rangi Akbar

Brace yourself for another upset in this topsy turvey Inter-School rugby contest this year. Wesley fighting with tooth and nail recorded their first win for the season when they made St. Anthony’s eat humble pie at the Royal Sports Complex Grounds yesterday.

WHAT’S THE HURRY. This Wesley player is well held by an St. Anthony’s forward. An incident at the inter-school rugby game at the Royal Sports Complex grounds yesterday which Wesley won 17-11 - Pic by Gemunu Wellage.

The Campbell Park lads made good use of their heavy forwards to crush St. Anthony’s Katugastota 17-11. Their points came off 2 goals and a try whilst the Antonians points came off a try and two penalties. Wesley led 10-3 at the breather.

Nevertheless Wesley coach Dushantha Priyadarshana was not satisfied. “Our forwards were not good enough,” lamented the pint sized coach.

“The refereeing was far below standard. We cannot win matches in Colombo this way,” breathed a hot St. Anthony’s coach Viper Gunaratne Jnr.

It was Wesley’s hour of glory. They held all the aces as their forwards fought with grim determination. They had an early chance of surging ahead but Yasas Nonis’ penalty kick lacked direction. In the first half St. Anthony’s very nearly scored when Thusal Rankoth ripped the Wesley defence to shreds with a red hot run. Unfortunately for him the move broke off due to lack of support.

Wesley continued to dominate with winger Tuan Jayah and the ever prominent Safir Jhan giving the Antonians a tough time. Then came Wesley’s big moment when Yasas Nonis put over a penalty to give them the lead at 3-0. Just before half time St. Anthony’s made it 3 all with a penalty by Roshan Wijesiri. Wesley increased the lead to 10-3 with Amal Pathirana crashing for a try by the posts and deputy skipper Samantha Lakshman added the extra points to make it 10-3 at the half, which prompted the Wesley supporters to chant their every popular slogan: ‘Zum, zum zacky zum zum zay………..’.

On resumption Wesley’s lead was cut down. This time it was a penalty by Roshan Wijesiri. The scores however still read 10-6 in Wesley’s favour.

Wesley staged a gallant fight with Safir Jhan and skipper Yeomal Amaratunga leading the attack. St. Anthony’s attacked sporadically with one particular move headed by Chanaka Gunaratne tearing the Wesley defence to score by the corner flag, This was unconverted. Wesley: 17, St. Anthony’s: 11.

This is St. Anthony’s second defeat for the season. They beat Kingswood and lost to Trinity and now they have crashed against Wesley. Surviving in this league is going to be tough for them.

Referee: D. Nimal.
Earlier in the Under 16 game St. Anthony’s beat Wesley 7-0.

‘Patana’ maintain winning streak

Isipathana 43
Vidyartha 0

By Bernie Wijesekera

It was running rugby at its best at Havelock Park yesterday.

Isipathana MV gave yet another scarlet-red performance. After leading 15-0 at the turnaround, they ran riot to defeat Vidyartha College Kandy by 43 points (5 goals, a try and a penalty) to nil.

Isipathana with a mobile back division generated power rugby with their ‘eight’ had the weight, power and strength.

Vidyartha after a gutty display in the first half but melted like ice in the second half against the Pathana onslaught, which ended in a spate of injuries. Cnter Roshan Ratnayake was outstanding.The Havelock Town school capitalized to run over four tries in this half with SajithTharanga (2), skipper Ashan Costa (1), winger Srinath (1) and Dimuthu Tharaka (1) scoring the tries. Full back Rizvie Mubarak was on target with his kicks.

Isipathana are unbeaten in the competition with wins over Science College, St.Joseph’s and won their friendly with St. Anthony’s Katugastota.

Referee: Orville Fernando.
In the under 16 match Isipathana won 21 -7.

CR enter final

CR & FC 21
Air Force 13

By S.M.D. Sirisena

CR and FC entered the final of the Clifford Cup knock-out rugby tournament when they beat Air Force 21 (3 tries, 2 penalties) to 13 (1 try, 2 penalties) in the quarter-final game at Longden Place yesterday. At half time CR led 8-7.

In the first 15 minutes Senjith Kumar put over a penalty for CR. Then Air Force put over a penalty to make it 3 all. Air Force surged ahead at 6-3 next when Pathum Ediriweera put over a penalty.

Tries for CR were scored by Pavithra Fernando and Ranasinghe. Pathum Ediriweera scored for Air Force next. CR-8. Air Force-10.

At this stage Air Force fought like terriers and CR had pulled out all stops to turn the game in their favour. CR’s Senthil Kumara was even shown the yellow card.

TODAY: CH & FC vs Havelocks at Longden Place.

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