Cooler climes favour Green Machine

St Anthonys Vs Isipathana 

By Nimal Luxshman                       

Isipathana College, better known as the “Green Machine” (GM) in the field of rugby, took on St. Anthony’s at Nittawela on Saturday evening. It was their first outing away from Colombo this season. This encounter was important for both side because the GM had to maintain their unbeaten record intact, while the Anthonians were determined to record their first win for the 2024 season, against a formidable opposition. 

With conditions at Nittawela being perfect for fast and open rugby, the GM made their hunger for victory clear from the very beginning when they made inroads to the Anthonian 25m metres on several occasions. They finally succeeded on the fifth minutes when their Deputy Skipper Shaahid Zumri barged through about four defenders to score their first try and convert it himself to give his side a 7-0 lead.                                  

Isipathana center Dinada Wickramarachchi planted the second try for his team four minutes later, but Zumri missed the conversion for the scoreboard read 12-0.    

The lead of Isipathana increased to 17-0 on the 30th minute, through another unconverted by flanker Thinethra Dodangoda, who ran about 25 metres to score, after Zumri made an important break with his usually deceptive run.

The Anthonian supporters were made jubilant few minutes before half time when a rolling maul proved vulnerability in Isipathana defence and resulted in the first try of the hosts, scored by their burly second row forward and No. 4, Rakesh Pillay. The scoreboard read 17-5 in favour of the visitors when Referee Ishanka Abeykoon blew half time.               

Isipathana Skipper Jayaweera was the first to score after half time, to increase the lead of his side to 24-5 with Zumri making an easy conversion. This brought about the much-needed bonus point for the visitors. 

A penalty converted by the Anthonians reduced the deficit to 24-8. On the 45th minute Isipathana center Nimantha Sandeepa scored the fifth try for his team and increase the lead to 31-8 when Zumri added the extra points.            

It took nearly 20 minutes for the visitors to score again, presumably due to players who were occupying the bench being sent into the field to replace the players of the starting line-up. The last converted try by the visitors, just seconds before the final whistle, enabled them to 

increase their tally to 38-8 when the Referee blew no side.

The score line does not depict the performance of the host team, which made scoring somewhat difficult for their more fancied opponents from Colombo. The Anthonians must be commended for the fighting spirit they displayed till the final whistle, which made their opponents commit a series of errors during this game.         

It must be mentioned that most of the Isipathana players were guilty of engaging in a lot of selfish play, making far too many mistakes when they were in the opponents’ 25 metres, presumably due to their eagerness to score. They were once again seen depending heavily on 

their Deputy Skipper Shaahid Zumri who had an excellent game.

The game ended with Isipathana retaining their unbeaten tag while the host team was once again unlucky to record a win this season.