Pathana thwart Antonians
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Despite being shackled during the opening phase and dying stages of the game, Isipathana College continued their brilliance on the field, as firm favourites to retain the Dialog Schools Rugby League 2023, savouring a 37-26 win against St. Anthony’s College at Longdon Place yesterday.
The Green Machine were well thwarted by the Eagles, who would have firmly bolstered after last week’s win against Wesley College, but the hosts gradually turned tables to earn points and end the first half at 18-5, in a game where both teams earned bonus points for scoring four tries or more. Isipathana stood out after their early setback and dominated the game until the last six minutes before substituting the entire bench, but only after scoring from a tally of five tries, three conversions and two penalties. St. Anthony’s, who failed to find momentum, capitalized on Isipathana’s mishaps and stole the opportunities to score from four tries and three conversions in total, out of which three came after the hosts decided to replace their regulars in the dying moments of the game.
The standouts for the winners were winger Rinesh Silva, No.8 Nisija Jayaweera, centre Shaahid Zumri and fullback Kalindu Silva. Zumri and Kalindu were brilliant with ball handling and offloads, which created quite a few try-scoring opportunities. Rinesh Silva and Jayaweera braced two tries each, but the former was the top contributor with 25 points off his two brilliantly created tries, three conversions and two penalties.
With St. Anthony’s defending valiantly in the early stage, Isipathana took two early penalties, in the seventh and 15th minutes, before Jayaweera braced the first try for the winners in the 22nd minute. Both Silva’s tries were identical. And his first, was as brilliant one that followed, an almost coast-to-coast, soon after Jayaweera’s try. By the time Isipathana had added 18 points to their tally, and the only occasion they made a slight mishap, St. Anthony’s winger Roshen Kumara was astute to snatch the miscued pass and cover more than half of the length to score an unchallenged and unconverted try before halftime.
Jayaweera repeated his antics after the resumption, which resulted in him going over for a try in the 47th minute. With Silva’s conversion they were comfortably placed at 25-5. Silva repeated his first half brilliance, after Zumri covered a good distance and made a brilliant offload to end up with an unconverted try in the 51st minute. Flanker Troshan Gamage took the honour of bracing Isipathana’s fifth try, which followed with a conversion in the 62nd minute, before the hosts decided to replace their starting lineup, with a lead of 37-5.
But unexpectedly it was the opening that the Eagles craved for, as they added three tries within seven minutes off flanker Jude Realano, hooker Saduka Athukorala and centre Tyron Mariadas. Flyhalf Sahan Keerthisiri, who missed the first one, converted the last three tries that helped St. Anthony’s end up with a respectable total.