Memorable rugby wins and a death at home

By A Special Sports Correspondent

The third round of inter-school under 19 league rugby tournament matches became very competitive and the winners except Royal had to struggle before prevailing and earning their bonus points.

Isipatana, S. Thomas’, St. Peter’s, Zahira and D.S. Senanayake earned memorable wins; throwing open the tournament and making predictions hard as climbing the greased pole. Isipatana produced a dazzling 28-18 win against St. Joseph’s at Longden Place; remaining unbeaten and also showing signs of producing more sparks as the season progresses.

The game that produced a thriller was the one between Wesley and D.S Senanayake which the latter won thanks to an overwhelming performance by both the forwards and the three quarters. The match winner for D.S.S was Jayatu Rajaratna who scored a hat-trick of tries. The game turned out to be a ding dong battle and Wesley came back strongly in the second half with their forwards and their ruthless driving maul. But the fast-running Rajaratna was too good for Wesley, who were shattered with his brilliant running and powerful play.

Another game that predicted a close contest was the one between Royal and Vidyartha, but the Colombo lads stuck to basics and allowed their free flowing style of rugby to do the rest. The winners collected their points through seven tries and six conversions. Vidyartha suffered a heavy defeat and even had injuries to a couple of players. This is the price one pays in Division 1 Segment A rugby where the stakes are high in terms of prestige and glory. The solitary points for the losers came off a drop kick or field goal. Royal are one of the most competitive sides this season and despite the defeat at the hands of St. Peter’s in their first outing the Reid Avenue boys have bounced back and are expected to finish on a high this season.

A S. Thomas’ College player makes a power run in the team’s inter-school under 19
league rugby tournament fixture against Kingswood which the former won 28-17 at
Mount Lavinia.

Isipatana lived up to expectations in their match against Joes; chalking up a thumping win and also earning a bonus point. There was a heartwarming issue associated with this match where Heshan Randimal of Isipatana played in the game despite the passing away of his mother. The lad played for his schools while people, friends and close relatives were paying their last respects to his late mother at the funeral. These types of incidents are rare in rugby or any sport, but for Isipatana it is not the first. In 1992, if this writer remembers right, Piyum Prashantha also played in a rugby final for Isipatana at the time there was a death in the family. This player’s deceased parent wanted the boy to play rugby at all costs and this was the very reason that motivated him to make himself strong and turn up for the match. This could have been the same reason why Randimal too played in the team’s match last Friday. Most often mothers- more than fathers -are the die-hard supporters of their sons who play rugby.

S. Thomas’ huffed and puffed before winning their match against Kingswood; the latter not being able to capitalize on the Thomain Red card and being reduced to 14 players. St. Peter’s made a strong presence in their match against Dharmaraja at Bogambara winning 34-7. Zahira rattled Science with the rousing display of rugby at Maradana before taking the game away from their opponents with a 24-8 win.