Thurstan trounce Science 36-15 for first win

Achala Ramanayake

Thurstan College registered their first victory this season beating Science College comprehensively by 36 points to 15 in their inter school Division I segment 'B' match which was worked off at Longden Place yesterday.

In their first outing Thurstan went down fighting to more fancied Wesley College 25 points to 05. As any talented side Thurstan have learned from their mistakes and came back strongly this week to register this exciting win.

Thurstan managed to comeback strongly through their forwards this time which made the difference in the match, Tremendous loose play by the forwards helped the backs to work the ball more often.

In the early stages of the game Thurstan drew first blood thanks to fly-half Eranga de Costa who put over a penalty. Just after they managed to add more points with some loose play by captain cum flanker Chandana Pushpakumara and Senura Keheliya who finally scored the try but Eranga de Costa failed with the conversion.

The Science College put up a quick rally to equal the points in very quick time by winger Sisira Kumara scoring a try which was unconverted and full back Ashan Malik putting over a penalty. Thurstan managed to come back strongly to score a under the post a try through No. eight Chathuranga Jayasanka and Eranga de Costa added the extra points. At lemons Thurstan was leading 15 points to 08.

After the short breather Science College managed to halt Thurstanites from scoring for some time until prop forward Hafiz Adahan crossed over for a well deserved try and Costa adding the extra points from a difficult angel helped extend the lead further to 22 points to 08. Few minutes later flanker Niranjana Kashapa Bandara scored a try with Costa adding the extra points to widened the lead by 29 points to 08.

With a terrific move from the 22 meter line in the opponents half Science College's Pushpa Jayakumara crossed over for a try in the latter part of the match. Full back Ashan Malik added the extra points to reduce the gap to 29 points to 15. But in the dying stages of the game Thurstan captain crossed over for a another well deserved try and Costa Collected the extra points through a remarkable corner flag conversion.