S. Thomas’ prevail with second half burst

By M. Shamil Amit

S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia chalked up their second win of the ongoing Under 19 inter-schools rugby tournament with a 22-17 win against Kingswood College Kandy in the match played at Mount Lavinia today (18).

The Thomians having conceded a lead 08-12 to Kingswood at the breather came back with vengeance in the second half scoring 14 points while giving up just five and in the process accumulated their points through two goals, a try and a penalty against the goal and two tries scored by Kingswood.

The Thomians’ performance yesterday mirrored that of their two previous games, where they showed their prowess in the second half of the match.

A promising start saw them being gifted chances of scoring in the first five minutes but poor ball handling cost them.

Kingswood played a more calculated and patient game which paid off when they took the lead in the eighth minute through an unconverted try scored by winger Dakshina Athukorale.

Kingswood buoyed by that continued to make sporadic moves and had the home side struggling for survival before increasing the lead in the 14th minute with fly half Asiri Seneviratne going over for a try under the post. Scrum half Hirusha Nethmina converted the easy kick at goal.

However the Thomians undeterred got their act together and following a melee with the game 24 minutes old, were awarded a penalty which full back Ovin Hettiarchchi made no mistake with.

From there on they put the Kingswood defence under tremendous pressure and in the dying stages of this session they succeeded to breach their opponents' defense with wing three quarter Rehan Olugala going over for a try. Hettiarachchi’s conversion went astray as the short whistle was blown with Kingswood in the lead 12-08.

With a close tussle developing, the Thomians struck first in the second half, with a try by hooker Lasindra de Silva which was made sweeter when Hettiarachchi’s conversion was spot on to give the home side a 15-12 advantage.

But that was short-lived as Kingswood struck back in the 14th minute with winger Dinal Ekanayake going over for a try. Hirusha missed the conversion but Kingswoodians had taken the lead 17-15.

The Thomians put up a sterling performance as they fought back and gave the Kingswood side some torrid moments.

The effort put in by them was rewarded as they succeeded to take back the lead with prop forward Shenuk Perera’s try with Hettiarachchi making the conversion with ease seeing them to a 22-17 lead.

The Thomian’s thwarted a late surge by the Kingswoodians, who were condemned to their second defeat of the season.

Rohan Fernando refereed.