Joes cruise to fourth successive win

By M. Shamil Amit

St. Joseph’s College cruised to their fourth successive win in the Under-19 Inter-Schools League Rugby Tournament with a convincing 37-19 win against Trinity College in their match played at Havelock Park today (22).

The Josephians who led 25-7 at half time collected their points through three goals, two tries and two penalties against two goals and a try scored by Trinity.

The match turned out to be a one sided affair as the Josephians ran circles around the Trinity defence and had them struggling for survival.

Centre Tharindu Maduranga and fly half Santhush Algama dominated proceedings in the first 20 minutes with the pair contributing the first 20 points of the game.

In fact, Tharindu made the first move with the game three minutes old by going over for a try with Santhush adding the extra points and six minutes later Santhush booted over a penalty to increase the lead.

Tharindu went over for his second try in the 18th minute and with Santhush making the conversion St. Joseph’s had increased the lead to 17-0.

Three minutes later Santhush made no mistake with another penalty.

Trinity came back strongly with scrum half Tehan Karunanayake going over for a try and fly half Miranga Subasinghe added the extra points.

But the Josephians struck back few minutes before the short whistle when Skipper and number eight Tharindu de Alwis went over for a try.

On resumption, it were the Josephians who again made the first scoring in the second minute through a try by second row Cheka Jayawardena and Santhush’s kick was on the spot.

The Trinitians then managed to score back-to-back tries with winger Amith Kulatunga going over in the fourth minute and seven minutes later centre Harsha Samarasinghe touched down for another try.

However, Miranga Subasinghe was able to make only one conversion.

The Josephians then sealed the game in their favour with winger Sudaraka Devapriya going over for an unconverted try as the team from Darley Road came out easy winners 37-19.

Referee: Rohan Fernando.