Antonians beat much -fancied St. Joseph

Antonian player Roshen Kumara on an attacking move 

By Shamseer Jaleel in Kandy

St. Anthony’s College started their Dialog Schools League 2023 opening encounter with a superb win over much-fancied St. Joseph’s College by 22 points (3 tries. 2 conversions, 1 penalty) to 12 Points (2 tries, 1 conversion) at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy yesterday.

At the short breather it was the Joes who led 12/10.

The opening game for 2023 was played at a very good pace with the Antonians dominating proceedings from the kick off onwards. They had a lot of territory after some fine touch kicks by their skipper, Sahan Keerthisiri. Joes played well in patches but they lacked the finishing touches. Their skipper, Naveen Marasinghe was a well-marked man unable to move freely. It brought at least two opponent players to stop the burly Marasinghe from his free movement.

Antonians led by their play maker and skipper, Sahan Keerthisiri had a grand game. He led the outfit with very good decision making and his reading of the game was exemplary. Later in the second half Antonians were down to 13 players but still Joes were unable to see the try line. Saduka Athukorale, Jude Realano, Yashiru Gamage and Oshan Gunarathne played their hearts out for the Antonian lads.

Joes drew first blood in the 14th minute of the game through Vianga Randheera try. Ruchitha Rodrigo missed the conversion. Four minutes later Antonians scored through Jude Realano try and Sahan Keerthisiri conversion to take the lead 7/5.

Joes scored through next by Jehan Athukorale. Ruchitha Rodrigo added the extras to take the lead 12/7. On stroke of half time Antonians cut the deficit through their skipper, Sahan Keerthisiri penalty to take the short breather trailing by 2 points at 10/12.

After the turn around it was one horse race as the Antonians dominated proceedings scoring through Omitha Dissanayake and Roshen Kumara with Sahan Keerthisiri converting one of them.

This was the debut game for Antonians head Coach Srinarth Sooriyabandara who had a winning start for his coaching career.

Referee was Ishanka Abeykoon.

In the Under-16 encounter Antonians won 17/0 while the Under-14 game was won by Joes 12/10.