Joes second half burst too much for Anto

By Shamzeer Jaleel

• St. Joseph’s 35 points
• St. Anthony’s 20 points

Five unanswered tries in the later half by St. Joseph’s College helped them to beat St. Anthony’s College by 35 points (seven tries) to 20 points (one try, five penalties) at Havelock Park yesterday.

At the short breather it was the Antonians who led 17/10. With this win Joes moves forward to the Super round along with their group leaders Royal. 

Antonians displayed good skills in the earlier half with their forwards and three quarters clicking well. In fact, their fly half, Sahan Keerthisinghe though injured, played a grand game finding the required touch kicks with lot of territory for the visiting team. Come the second half they looked an unfit outfit giving a lethargic approach for the game. Ball handling was far below the expected standards, and they looked a sorry figure.

Meanwhile Joes who took time to settle played well in the later half. They were threatening with their three quarter moves plus their forwards were mobile. They will need to work hard in kick at goal where they missed seven of them missing out nearly 14 points. Regular kicker Dilahra Subash (4), Isuru Kanchana (2) and Ruchitha Rodrigo were the ones who tried with kicking duties with none of them succeeding.

Their Head Coach, Nilfer Ibrahim who is away in England on national duty with the sevens outfit had done all the hard work with the outfit but will need to spend time on the kicking department before the super round kicks off against Isipathana and Wesley which will be more competitive.

Antonians drew first blood in the 5th minute of the game when Zacky Jiffry broke through the Joes defence. Antonians went further ahead through a Sahan Keerthisinghe penalty, but Joes hit back through a Deshan Tharuka try. Chamod Seneviratne try took the lads from Darley Road into the lead for the first time at 10/8. But the lead was short lived as the Antonian fly half, Sahan Keerthisinghe though injured was dead accurate with his penalty kicks putting over three more penalties to take the short breather at 17/10.

After the turn around Joes scored five more tries through Chamod Seneviratne, Mandara Amarasekera, Minindu Pathirana, Jehan Athukorale and Sithija Sanjeewa. Antonians only scoring in this half was a solitary penalty by Sahan Keerthisinghe who contributed 15 points for the Katugastota lads.

Referee Dilum Deeshana

Isipathana, Royal, Wesley and St. Joseph’s will move to the Super round.