Ananda hold Thurstan to a 22 all draw

ACHALA RAMANAYAKE

Thurstan were held to a 22-all draw due to a late rally by the Anandians in their under 20 inter school division one segment ‘B’ match played at Longden Place yesterday. Both teams collected their points through a goal and three tries each.

Thurstan went in for the game with confidence as they won the earlier outings in the tournament while Ananda was defeated by Lumbini MV. As it was a crucial match in segment ‘B’ both teams had a tough task.

Thurstan drew first blood as they scored through Ishan Samarakody the full back.

After sometime Thurstan was awarded a penalty try because of dangerous play by the Anandians and Eranga de Costa added the extra points.

Thurstan who had the better of the first half was leading 12 points to nil at the short whistle.

Soon after lemons Thurstan managed to score another two tries through Hafiz Adahan and Amila Shiranga but the conversions were unsuccessful.

Anandians were able to score an unconverted try to reduce the gap to 22-05.

That was the time the game turned into a thriller, with just 10 minutes to go for the long whistle, Anandians scored for the second time for a well converted try. After two minutes they managed to score again but the conversion was unsuccessful. But in the dying stages of the match Ananda were awarded several penalties and they managed to score the much wanted try to equal the scores but they could not convert, as the final score line was 22-all.

As both teams fought hard the pace of the game was accelerated in the latter part of the match. Even the referee found it hard to control the game. The match was refereed by Dimithri Gunasekara who is a young referee and still in the early stages of his career as a referee.

The Referees Association should appoint more experienced referees for crucial matches such as this as the whole game depends on the decisions made by the referee.