Schools Rugby Review:

Kingswood regain under-20 schools league title

Chris Dhambarage

Kingswood College Kandy regained the Singer inter-school under 20 Division One Group A league rugby title when they defeated their home town rivals Trinity College by 12 points to 7 points in the deciding fixture played at the Bogambara Stadium.

The Kingswoodians completely dominated the early part of the game to take a 12 nil lead and then put up a solid defence during the latter stages to complete a memorable victory. Kingswood always looked the better side and certainly they underlined their superiority by scoring two splendid tries.

Their captain Gayan Rathnage led from the front and was responsible for scoring both tries with the entire pack providing the back up support. In addition the manner in which they counter attacked even from their own territory was quite outstanding.

Kingswood College made a rousing start to the game and they maintained that until the end while not allowing their opponents to settle down. They had more options and scoring opportunities where a couple of chances went a stray due to their over enthusiasm.

Kingswood College of course never led the points table and their chances of winning the title looked bleak at one stage following their 7-15 defeat at the hands of St. Peter’s College in Colombo. But they seem to have improved tremendously since that setback and the two victories against S. Thomas’ College (29-7) and Isipatana College (6-3) put them back on the track.

St. Joseph’s v Mahanama

St. Joseph’s College were crowned as Singer inter-school Division One Group B champions when they defeated their closest rivals Mahanama College by 20 pints to 10 points in the deciding match worked off at Havelock Park.

The Josephians who are enjoying one of their finest seasons in the recent past completed their task in a spectacular manner that helped them to earn a promotion into the Division One Group A league from next year.

This was a fantastic performance from the Joes who were really consistent throughout the current inter-school rugby season. They got off to a flying start and they were able to maintain that same form until their final outing of the tournament which they also won by a convincing margin.

In fact St. Joseph’s College were never challenged by any of their opponents and they also had the opportunity of defeating an A division team S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in their annual encounter played for the Lady Jayatilleke Shield.

St. Joseph’s College remained as the only unbeaten side in the entire tournament and they collected a staggering 314 points from their maximum of eight outings. This included a record number of 54 tries to their credit and they conceded only 44 points to their opponents.

Royal v S. Thomas’

Royal College warmed up for the vital Bradby Shield second leg match while outplaying their traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia by 22 points to five points in their annual encounter played at the Royal Sports Complex grounds in Reid Avenue.

Royal also retained the Michael Gunaratne Trophy for their third successive year. But more importantly Royal will be quite pleased with their effort having gone down to Trinity College 12-24 at this same venue in their previous outing.

This time however Royal were able to bounce back with a vengeance as they completely rattled their opponents while running down three superb tries. The Royal forwards led the way with their dynamic number eight Bilal Hasan making another fine impact.

In fact the Sri Lanka youth cap and the double international scored twice and also set up several other scoring opportunities that put a lot of pressure on the opposition.

Royal also increased their tally to 24 victories in the series against their opponents 17 wins.

Isipatana v Vidyartha

Isipatana College completed the Singer inter-school under 20 Division One Group A league tournament with an impressive 62 points to 3 points victory over Vidyartha College Kandy at Havelock Park.

This was a fine effort from Isipatana College who took the opportunity to score as many as eleven tries against a weak opposition. They had been at the receiving end on a couple of occasions and their morale was shattered following a series of defeats. But this time they grabbed the opportunity to redeem some of their lost prestige as they began to regroup in preparation for the knock out stages of the tournament.