Trinity off to flying start

Schools Rugby Review:

Chris Dhambarage

Trinity College Kandy have made a great start to the new inter- school rugby season. Last week they annihilated S. Thomas' College by a massive 75 points to 6 points in their annual encounter at Mount Lavinia.

Trinity's success had a huge amount of significance as they set up a new series record while overcoming the previous highest score of 70-8 against the Thomians way back in 1974 at the Bogambara Stadium.

But more than the record Trinity College will be quite pleased with their kind of performance as they also regained the Canon R. S. de Saram Shield while playing their second game in the Singer 'A' division tournament.

Trinity College of course had struggled a bit in their opening fixture of the season where they edged out their home town rivals Kingswood College by a close margin of ten points to three points in Kandy.

But this time they really got their act together well and went on the rampage to cross their opponents goal line on as many as 12 occasions. They made early inroads into the Thomian territory and made their intentions clear while building up a commanding 34-6 lead at the breather.

They never looked back from there onwards and added further humiliation on their opponents while collecting a total of 40 points in the second half. Despite performing away from home Trinity College certainly produced a superlative performance while proving that they could be a major threat to the opposition this season.

Royal v Wesley

Royal College had a close call for the second successive week as they edged out Wesley College by a narrow 33 points to 32 points in their annual inter-school under 19 rugby encounter played last week.

After their 38-31 win over St. Joseph's College in the previous outing Royal College once again came under tremendous pressure from a spirited Wesley outfit at Havelock Park.

Royal's success was always in the balance before their place kicker and fly half Arshad Jamaldeen saved them with a last minute penalty. In fact Jamaldeen turned out to be the star for Royal where he contributed a total of 18 points for his team with three conversions, three penalties and a neat drop goal.

This was of course not the first time that Jamaldeen had saved his team because the dynamic fly half produced a similar effort against St. Joseph's College in their opening match of the tournament.

But his performance against Wesley College was even great because his team was heading towards a shock defeat at one stage where they were trailing 20-27 and again 30-32 going into the extra time.

Jamaldeen as he has always done in last year's tournament kept his cool and handled the pressure quite well to give his team another thrilling victory at the end.

The Wesleyites could take a lot of credit from this outing as they earned valuable bonus points for scoring more tries than their opponents and for losing the match within a margin of five points.

St. Peter's v Thurstan

Meanwhile the defending champions St. Peter's College have started their new season just in the manner they concluded it last year. The Peterites further extended their unbeaten record with two convincing victories in the tournament. They opened the season with a smashing 48-14 win over Science College Mount Lavinia and then followed up with a huge 61-6 victory against Thurstan College on their home grounds at Bambalapitiya.

St. Peter's College have already signaled a warning to the rest of their opponents through some fast open rugby as they ran down as many as eleven tries in the game against Thurstan College.

Isipatana v St. Anthony's

Former champions Isipatana College cruised to their second successive victory in the tournament when they defeated St. Anthony's College 31-3 in their annual inter-school fixture worked off at the Nittawela Stadium.

Isipatana who had earlier defeated Dharmaraja College 37-15 completed another successful outing as they scored five tries and converted three of them while conceding only a solitary penalty to their opponents.

St. Joseph's v Science College

St. Joseph's College came out with a fantastic performance to beat Science College 28-24 in an exciting inter-school rugby encounter worked off at Mount Lavinia last week.

The Josephians of course were promoted into the top division following their tremendous success last year and already they have been able to make an impact with a stunning display.

They had earlier given the more fancied Royal College a good run for their money while going down fighting 31-38 in another thrilling encounter where they had the satisfaction of scoring more tries than their opponents.

But in their second outing St. Joseph's College struck form as they came back with a vengeance to beat Science College with an outstanding performance where they scored two goals, one try and converted three penalties.