Dialog Schools Rugby St. Joseph’s in must win crucial game today

By M. Shamil Amit

The curtains of the first round league matches of the Dialog Schools Rugby tournament will come down today with the clash between St. Joseph’s and St. Anthony’s scheduled to be kicked off at Havelock Park from 4.15 pm onwards.

The match is no doubt going to be a crucial one for the Josephians as they are in a must-win situation if they are to make any progress to stake claim for a slot to the second round and join Royal, who have come out on top in the group having completed their five matches.

The high-riding Josephians, after their defeat to Royal, put themselves in a spot of bother which left them to fight out the second spot in the group with Trinity who, as Royal, also has completed their five matches.
A win against St. Anthony’s would be sufficient for them to progress to the next stage of the tournament as they overcame Trinity in the league encounter which might be taken into consideration.
However, the Royal setback for sure is not going to make them fall back as they will no doubt be coming into the game with better preparation with the aim of securing a win.

The Josephians’ skipper and center Teran Karunanayake will bank on No 8 Naveen Marasinghe who is in top form, fly-half Dilhara Subash, prop Jehan Athukorala, flanker Sachinthana Vidana, second-row Randika Dahanayake and center Vihanga Randeepa to deliver the goods.

On the other hand, St. Anthony’s led by burly No 8 Jeyan Amarasinghe has not been able to make that much headway and have been able to notch up only one win against hometown rivals Kingswood as against to three defeats to Royal, Trinity and S. Thomas’ and the skipper will be pinning their hopes on fly-half Sahan Keerthisiri, winger Tiron Mariyadas, hooker Vimsala Athukorala, flanker Akesha Jayawansa, full-back Maliksha Perera, winger Somitha Dissanayake and second rows Jaden Koch and Randeer Perera.

With the scale in favour of the Josephians, it’s left to be seen whether the Antonians would be able to come into terms and prevent the Darley Road boys from going on a rampage.