Sports -

S. Thomas’ folded like a pack of cards in the second half and crashed to a 17-34 defeat at the hands of St. Anthony’s Katugastota in the Inter-School rugby game played at Police Park yesterday. At the breather S. Thomas’ led 12-0.Asanga Seneviratne, the Thomian coach said that his wards were very young and that they had only one coloursman in the side. “Nevertheless the forwards played extremely well,” said Asanga.

S. Thomas’ gave the Antonians some anxious moments but the Antonians were in overall charge yesterday. S. Thomas’ attacked from the kick off and Niluk Wickremaratne cut through like a hot knife through butter to score far right. But the Thomians could not cling on to this lead for long as the Antonians hit back through a try by Kusal Rankoth which was converted by D. Wijesiri to put themahead at 7-5. S. Anthony’s increased the lead to 10-5 a little later through a Wijesiri penalty.

But the Thomians fought like tigers and once again winger Niluka Wickrematilleke made a powerful run to score and Sadeva Dharmadasa was on target with his kick to give the Thomians the lead at the breather 12-10.

The Antonians started the second half full of fire and brimstone with Kusal Rankothge scoring and Roshan Hapugastanne adding the extra points. This put the Antonians ahead at 15-12.To add salt to the would Kusal Rankoth made a dash from almost the Antonian defense line to put them firmly ahead at 22-12.

The Thomians fought against tremendous odds and skipper Yositha Rajapakse used his weight to crash over for an unconverted try with Sadeva Dharmadasa’s kick atgoal striking the upright. St. Anthony’s led 22-17 at this stage. The writing was on the wall for the Thomians when Mohammed Sarfaz ranthrough a tired Thomian defence to score and Roshan Wijesiri added the extra points. 29-17. With the minutes ticking bye Amila Weligampola sprinted irresistibly away for the last Antonian try.

Referee: Anil Jayasinghe.

In the junior games St.Anthony’s won the under 12 game and the Thomians made sure of the under 14 and under 15 games.

The second S.Thomas’ rugby skipper in their history S.B.L.Perera was the chief guest.