Schools Rugby Review:

Kingswood in runaway 87-0 win over Wesley

Chris Dhambarage

RUGBY: Former champions Kingswood College Kandy powered their way to register a massive 87 points to nil victory over their traditional rivals Wesley College in their Singer interschool 'A' division league rugby tournament match played at Longden Place last week.

The Kingswoodians making their second successive appearance in Colombo put up another magnificent performance as they produced a feast of tries while penetrating their opponents defence on as many as fourteen occasions. They also retained the L. E. Blaze Shield for another year as they piled up one of the highest scores in the series.

Kingswood College of course have dominated the series in the past few years and their massive victory did not come as a surprise. But this time they looked quite a determined outfit as they had something to prove after having lost their opening fixture against Isipatana College.

They began to display their true potential when they defeated S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia by another big margin on their home grounds in Kandy and later they also defeated Royal College by a convincing margin.

Last week they were in tremendous form as they kept their hopes alive of regaining the Singer 'A' division league title.

Dynamic centre three quarter Roshan Weeraratne turned out to be their most outstanding player as he touched down on five occasions and his brother Gayan Weeraratne scored twice. The former completed a memorable game by converting seven tries.

St. Anthony's v Royal

St. Anthony's College delivered a stunning blow as they brought down Royal College by 26 points to 12 points in a key Singer inter school rugby tournament match worked off at the Nittawela Stadium last week.

The Antonians seem to be making steady progress after a shaky start to the season and are very much in contention for the 'A' division league title. They were humiliated in their very first outing by a rampaging Peterite outfit at Bambalapitiya which gave them very few chances of staging a recovery.

But the Antonians have proved that they have the courage and the determination to bounce back and the results thereafter have been quite amazing. They edged out their home town rivals Trinity College by a solitary point in an absolute thriller and that was just the ideal tonic to boost their confidence.

Now they have emerged as a major force in the current inter school rugby season and their latest performance against Royal College is a clear indication of their talent and potential.

They completed their task in style while scoring four tries and conceding just two tries to their opponents.

Their margin of victory would have certainly been greater if not for some unwanted kicking by stand off Roshan Wijesiri who had an off day. Nevertheless the Antonians made sure that they always had the opposition under pressure and succeeded in pulling off another fantastic victory at the end.

St. Peter's v Thurstan

St. Peter's College moved closer towards retaining the 'A' division league title for the second successive year as they trounced Thurstan College by another massive margin of 67 points to nil in their Singer inter school tournament match played at Longden Place last week.

The Peterites playing like a true champion side ran down as many as eleven tries and succeeded in converting six of them. They of course took some time to settle down with their first try coming almost half an hour into the first half. But once they got their act together the Peterites simply went on the rampage while penetrating their opponents defence at regular intervals. After being restricted to 15 nil at half time they cut loose in the second half while scoring tries almost at will.

Dynamic wing forward Thilan Bulner had an excellent game as he planted five superb tries as the entire Peterite pack enjoyed themselves after their tough earlier games.