CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Isipathana College took a massive lead over their rivals in the points table after the third week of matches in the Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament.
The defending champions are comfortably placed in Group 1A of the Division One Segment following their third successive victory over St. Joseph’s College (28-18) last week at Longden Place.
The significant feature in their performances this season is that they were able to collect a bonus point in all three games having earlier defeated Kingswood College (32-8) at the Bogambara Stadium and S. Thomas’ College (29-20) at Mount Lavinia respectively.
As a result, Isipathana have now built up a good seven-point lead over their nearest rivals D. S. Senanayake College (11 points), with the two unbeaten teams set to meet on Friday at Havelock Park.
Isipathana have also been quite consistent with their try scoring this season and it has been an added advantage as they have already accumulated a total of 89 points from their three outings played so far.
They started off by scoring five tries in the opening match against Kingswood, followed up by running down four tries against a determined S. Thomas’ outfit and produced a repeat performance against the league runners-up St. Joseph’s.
The newcomers to ‘A’ Division rugby D. S. Senanayake and S. Thomas’ are currently placed second with 11 points each, but the former has the advantage of having played one game less than their rivals.
With Isipathana having already secured their spot in the Super Round Segment, the second position will be fought out between D. S. Senanayake and S. Thomas’. Two other favourite teams, St. Joseph’s and Wesley, are still struggling to get their act together well.
In fact, it will be a tough ask for the Wesleyites to make it to the Super Round segment as they have already suffered three back-to-back defeats at the hands of S. Thomas’ (13-19), St. Joseph’s (0-3) and D. S. Senanayake (20-29) respectively.
The Josephians are also in a spot of concern without any bonus points, and they need to pull off their next three games against Kingswood (July 9), S. Thomas’ (July 15) and D. S. Senanayake (July 29) by big margins to have any chances of repeating their last year’s performances.
Meanwhile, the Group 2A points table has turned out to be a three-cornered contest between Royal College, St. Peter’s College and the newcomers to ‘A’ Division rugby Zahira College.
Royal, with a total of 13 points from three games, are currently enjoying a two-point advantage over their closest rivals but in the process, they have played one game more than their other two rivals.
Royal have also successfully been able to collect a bonus point in all three matches played against St. Peter’s, Science College and Vidyartha College – the only side to perform this feat in Group 2A.
Three other teams from Kandy, Dharmaraja, Trinity and Vidyartha are placed fourth, fifth and sixth respectively with six points each but have a daunting task of qualifying for the Super Round segment from this group.
