That a single point goes a long way in rugby was conclusive at Bogambara yesterday as Kingswood scripted an amazing fight-back in the last six minutes of play. Yet they had to come off second best as Trinity beat them by 21 points (3 tries, 2 penalties) to 20 (a goal, 2 tries, 1 penalty).
Led 10-21 with about six minutes left, substitute winger Indunil Wickrmasinghe scorched along the left touch line to dive over for a dandy try. This was followed by Sansoni touching down for another.
Everything hinged on the conversion. An acute angle and a wet ball didn’t help Sansoni’s cause and he sliced his kick badly on the stroke of time.
Trinity had exorcised the Peterite horrors and they played superbly. They ran with the ball at speed, looked for the openings and brooked no opposition. No 8 Shenon Armstrong made many breaks and he took a lot of stopping. Full back Duminda Nayakaratne opened up the Kingswood defence time and again with some superb runs.
Twelve minutes into the game, lock Gotabya Mahes dived over mid right off a second phase move. Near the end of the first half, Mohammed Sheshan touched down close to the left upright to make it 10-nil to Trinity at lemons.Trinity’s game plan seemed to be to attack Kingswood all the while, and by the frequency and intensity of their attacks, they threw away the Kingswood lads off their stride.
The second half began well for Kingswood when Sansoni slotted a penalty. Almost at once Yatawara repaid them in the same coin (13-3).
Kingswood sustained pressure and cut the deficit when second rower Isuru Jayaratne touched down (13-10) and which was converted. Trinity put distance between them and their opponents when Nayakaratne dived over after receiving a pass five yards adrift of the line (21-10).
Then came those dazzling last few minutes. It would have been a travesty of justice if Trinity had lost.They strutted their stuff brilliantly at times and looked winners all the way.
Put it down to exhaustion, but they seemed to drop their guard at the end and the lads from Randles Hill capitalized. And how!For Kingswood, it was almost a case of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Referee Mr. Pradeep Fernando |
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