Isipathana staved off a spirited challenge from St. Joseph’s to record a close 29-23 win in the Under-20 inter-schools Division I ‘A’ league rugby game played at Longdon Place yesterday.
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| Isipathana forward Nipuna Devinda is handled by his Josephian counterpart Chirath Peiris at Longdon Place yesterday (Pic by Ranjith Perera) |
Isipathana who are reputed to play a dominative running game were well handled by St. Joseph’s in an encounter where mistakes were plenty of mistakes from both sides. St. Joseph’s who played a fighting game in the early stages and again in the latter stages contained the advancing Isipathanians with a solid defense.
But Isipathana managed to breach their opponent’s territory to run off with five tries out of which two were converted. Isipathana had a close lead by 17-13 at half time but were shell shocked with the Josephians’ approach as they revived their game plan and scored four tries and a penalty.
Though Isipathana collectively executed a well planned game by sending the ball to their strong three-quarter line which was spot on right throughout the game. St. Joseph’s were tidy in their defense but lacked options in clearing their own territory. Apart from scrumhalf Piyum Jayasinghe who was pervasive, the rest of the Josephian three-quarters failed to support.
Jayasinghe helped St. Joseph’s to draw first blood when he crossed the line in the third minute after clearing a possible Isipathana scoring opportunity. Isipathana came back to dominate inn the opponent’s territory but their moves were well marked by the Josephian defenders.
They had to wait till the ninth minute to initiate a blind side maneuver which saw outside centre Shamal Chathuranga scoring the first try. Fullback Shanaka Kumara converted the try as Isipathana lead by 7-5. Three minutes later winger D Thyagarajah put over a penalty to give St. Joseph’s the lead once again by a slender 8-7 lead. Their trademark three-quarter moves gave Isipathana a healthy expansion of their lead.
Unconverted tries by skipper and centre Prasad Devinda in the 19th minute and winger Shenal Dias in the 24th minute put Isipathana well ahead by 17-8. But St. Joseph’s bounced back with their strong forward to score a try off a maul as Chirath Peiris did the finishing touches.
After the turnaround Isipathana gained territorial advantage for almost a half of the second session but St. Joseph’s prevented their opponents from crossing over the line. They found a much anticipated break in the 65th minute when hooker Prasad Madushanka barged in from a maul to score an unconverted try.
Two minutes later flanker Sajid Shuaib intercepted the Josephian three-quarter line to score a brilliant try under the post as Isipathana cruised to a 29-13 lead with Kumara’s conversion.
St. Joseph’s retaliated well to put the Isipathanians on the defense and succeeded twice in the 78th minute through replacement centre Nuwan Kumara and just before the final whistle flanker Malshan Salgado scored to take their score to 29.
D Nimal refereed. |
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