Isipathana chalk up ominous third win of the season

Action from the Isipathana College vs St. Joseph’s match (Pic by Kushan Pathiraja)

By M. Shamil Amit 

There were few shocks in the third week of the Dialog Under 19 Schools’ Rugby League tournament, no more evident in defending champions Isipathana College easing to a comfortable win over last year’s runners-up St. Joseph’s College, for their third successive win. 
Over at the Hill Capital, St. Peter’s College took on Dharmaraja College and cruised through to a convincing win, their second of the season. 

Zahira College, as expected, came out on top against Science College, themselves starting the season with an unbeaten record. 
Royal College after their defeat in the first round of matches, demolished hapless Vidyartha College to post their second successive win while S. Thomas’ College were made to fight hard to get the better of Kingswood College for their second win of the tournament. 
Isipathana are the team to beat and even though they held on to a slender two-point lead at the breather (10-8) they came back with their best rugby to overpower the Josephians. 

They dominated most of the proceedings in both the sessions. It was skipper Naveen Kanishka who was their hero as he steered the side with a gritty performance and laid the foundation for their win.
Notable at this match was the Isipathana winger Hashen Randimal’s participation who, despite having a bereavement of a close family member, his mother, was determined to turn out for the school. He scored the first try for his side. Randiamal’s mother, according to sources, had passed away due to cancer and the funeral took place on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, in Bogambara, St. Peter’s College entered their match against Dharmaraja College as the favourites and they justified it with an emphatic win. 
The Rajans were no match for their opponents who came into the game with confidence after their morale boosting win against Royal in the first match. The star for the Peterites was Fullback Kushan Tharindu who was in top form scoring three of his team’s six tries. 
The Peterites almost sealed the game at the end of the first session of proceedings when they chalked up 22 points with the Rajans being unable to make any scoring. The Peterites added 12 more points in the second session to the solitary goal scored by Rajans which ensured the Bambalapitiya boys a convincing win and their second in as many matches. 

Zahira College too made it two wins out of two, when they got the better of Science College who crashed to their third successive defeat. The match was expected to be a closely contested affair, but Science found it tough to stave off the challenge of the home team. 
The Zahirians dominated from the outset and were under control with the Science side putting up all their resources to keep their opponents at bay. Zahira, with their cool approach succeeded in breaching the Science defence and scored two tries to lead 12-00 while Science in reply were able to boot over a penalty. Zahira planted their third try for a healthy 19-03 lead at lemons. The teams traded tries in the second half and there was no change to the likely outcome, as Zahira came out winners with ease by 24-08 to record their second win. 
D.S. Senanayake College, who were promoted to the top division of schools’ rugby this season, did not put themselves under pressure, playing a cool and calculated game against Wesley College. 
They succeeded to maintain the lead right throughout the match after the Wesleyites made the first scoring off a penalty. 
The Donz had nothing to lose while Wesley were under pressure after suffering two successive defeats, which seemingly led to mistakes and shortcomings that ended with them suffering their third successive defeat. 

Credit cannot be taken away from DSS skipper Jayathu Rajaratne, who with his do or die effort encouraged his team mates and gave them the confidence. Rajaratne was the playmaker who was the thorn in the flesh for the Wesleyites and his triple tries paved the way for DSS to record a stunning win which was their second successive. 
Royal vs Vidyartha 
Royal College were too good for Vidyartha College, who were unable to make any impression to prevent their opponents from going on the rampage. The stoppage at the halfway stage of the encounter saw Royal leading 26-00, a foreshadow of what was to be expected in the second half as well.  
The hapless Vidyartha side had no answer to the marauding approach of Royal, who chalked up another 21 points in the second half to which Vidyartha was only able to boot over a penalty as Royal, with a cakewalk 47-03win, secured their second win. 

S. Thomas’ College recorded their second win but it was not easy as they had to pull all the tricks out of the bag. The two teams shared honors in the first half with the Thomians scoring two goals going into an early 14-0 lead.
But the Randle Hills boys struck back to reduce the deficit to 14-10 at the breather. 
The Thomians increased their lead in the second half, but again the Kingswoodians came back to reduce the deficit to four points with a goal. 
The Thomians however sealed the game with another goal scoredat the end for a 28-17 victory, to record their second win.