CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – St. Anthony’s College delivered a stunning blow when they brought down the last year runners-up St. Joseph’s College 22-12 in the Inter-Schools Under-19 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament opening match played at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy.
The Antonians played their hearts out from the kick-off and rattled their more fancied opponents, collecting their points from two goals, one try and one penalty while the Josephians managed to score only a goal and one try.
The home side, after trailing 10-12 at half time, came back strongly and fired all their guns during the latter stages to turn the match in their favour in the most spectacular manner.
The Antonians took a decisive 17-12 lead shortly after the break following a beautiful try from dashing wing three quarter Omitha Dissanayake with Skipper and fly half Sahan Keerthisiri adding the extra points from a difficult angle.
St. Joseph’s, of course, had their chances in the second half but failed to capitalise and add to their scoreboard as the Antonians were found guilty of some indecent play where they were handed a red card and two yellow cards.
With the match heading to the last few minutes of play both teams figured in a do-or-die battle before wing three quarter Roshane Kumara sealed the contest for the Antonians with a magnificent try near the corner flag.
The conversion went astray but nevertheless, St. Anthony’s were able to get their campaign off to a flying start.
Earlier, St. Joseph’s showed promise as they scored twice in the first half with Jehan Athukorale making heavy inroads into the Antonian defence supported by a powerful performance from their set of forwards.
In between, St. Anthony’s managed to penetrate the Josephian defence for the first time in the game with a superb try from Jude Realano and Keerthisiri made no mistake with the conversion to give the home side a surprise 7-5 lead midway in the first half.
The Antonians will now move to their next game against D. S. Senanayake College at the same venue next week while St. Joseph’s will face Wesley at the Royal Sports Complex in Colombo.
