CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Trinity College survived a late scare from Vidyartha College before recording a hard-fought 20-10 victory in their Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament match played at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy.
The winners collected their points from one goal, two tries and one penalty while Vidyartha managed to score only two unconverted tries.
Even then, the Trinitians were heading towards a more convincing victory after having built up a commanding 17-0 lead at one stage before the game took a complete turnaround during the last few minutes of play.
Vidyartha, after a disappointing effort in the first half, eventually got their act together well to plant two back-to-back tries through Deshan Balasuriya as the game came alive with just seven points separating the two teams.
With both teams under tremendous pressure and the game heading towards the last few minutes, fly half Shan Althaf grabbed the opportunity to put over a vital penalty and hand Trinity a morale boosting victory.
Meanwhile, former league champions Royal College got back to winning ways in style as they outplayed Science College 45-10 in another Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament match played at Mount Lavinia.
The winners collected their points from five goals and two tries after leading 19-0 at half time while the home side responded with one goal and a penalty.
After last week’s setback, Royal opted to go in with a couple of positional changes to their side and it paid off immediately as their new full back Philo Calyaneratne set the tone by running through the opposition defence for the opening try of the game.
Royal added two more tries before half time to lead 19-0 and went on to score three more tries in the second half with Simak Shafeek converting four tries.
The home side also had a moment of brilliance when Oshada Perera mesmerised the Royal defence with a dazzling run from his own territory before sending teammate Isuru Perera over the line for their solitary try.
