Isipathana regain Singer League after 2 year wait

Isipathana players celebrate with the Singer School Rugby League trophy after beating S. Thomas’ by 28-24 at the CR and FC grounds on Saturday - Pic by Kushan Pathiraja

By Shamzeer Jaleel

Isipathana=28 points

St Thomas=24 points

Isipathana College dished out champagne rugby in order to secure the Singer League 2016 after a wait for 2 years when they edged out the Thomians in a thriller at Longdon Place last week-end in front of a sell-out crowd.

Isipathana last won the Singer League in 2014 under skipper, Shenal Silva. Thomians lost out 10 vital minutes of play when their star studded winger Naveen Heenakankanamge was “Yellow Carded”. Grabbing this one man advantage Isipathana piled up the points by scoring 2 converted tries and putting over a penalty. Number 8, Vageesha Weerasinghe and Chamod Fernando scored the Pathana tries with Gayan Wickramaratne putting over the penalty. But the Thomians hit back through  Sachithra Jayathilake try wth Ashwantha adding the extra points. Dhanuja Wijeratne scored the second Thomian try to reduce the gap to 5 points. Both these tries were scored by the Mount Lavinia School when Isipathana lost Sudeera Gayanath through a “Yellow Card” offence. Gayan took another penalty to take “Lemons” favoring 20/12 for Pathana. Number 8 Vageesha Weearasinghe who had an outstanding game covered nearly 60 meters to score his second try of the match, take Isipathana to 28 to 12 of Thomians.

The last 10 minutes saw Isipathana loose 2 more for “Yellow Card” where the referee Irshard Cader had 4 for the match bringing the Pathana down to 13 players. Thomians taking advantage out of the situation scored through Ashawantha Herath and Naveen Heenakankanmge but it was too later for a win as the Isipathana were home with a close win and taking the trophy home after 2 years wait.

Isipathana who enjoyed one of their best seasons not only won the league at last but also remained unbeaten for the season. They were coached by former Sri Lanka Sevens player, Nilfer Ibrahim.

Petrites edge out Trinity

St Peter’s=29 points

Trinity=20 points

The first half was evenly contested by both Trinity and the Petrites but the later half the lads from Bambalapiitya as clear leaders when the Kandy school lost their way through indiscipline rugby and poor leadership qualities.

 Petrites scored through Heenapala and Trinity soon replied through Naveen Rajaratnam. Both teams scored a penalty each to bring the score to 8 a piece. Then Nonis try took Petrites to 13/8 lead. But the lead was short lived as Trinity scrum Half, Anuk Boyagoda playing with class foxed almost all the players to score under the posts. Lashan Wijesuriya added the extra 2 points to take 15/13 lead for the Kandy school.

 After the turn around Trinity displayed poor rugby with a number of ball handling errors which cost them 3 penalties in quick time. To add to this Petrites scored their second half try when the Trinity defense was all over shockingly exposed. Though Trinity scored again through Dange it was too late for a recovery losing out on the Lt General Dennis Perera for one more year. This loss puts Trinity down to number 6 while the Petrites ended on number 5.

Royal get the better of Science

Royal=29 points

Science=22 points

Royal led 17/10 at the short breather with the help of a hat trick of tries by hooker Azmir Fajudeen who is making a comeback after his injury. Azmir who continued his try scoring spree in the later half too by adding another to and 5 for the match. Royal with this win were able to secure number 3 while the Science with limited facilities and without a ground and proper sponsorship should be commended for ending on number 4 position.

Antonians edge out Wesley

Antonians=23 points

Wesley=22 points

Antonians once again depended on their ever green full back Samuel Maduwantha’s boot to earn a nail biting finish against Wesley at Nittawela last week-end. Maduwantha scored 13 of the 23 points scored by the Antonians. With his fine effort scoring over 100 points this season he is assured of getting  selected to the national youth teams sevens tour of Malaysia and Hong Kong later next month for the Youth Asian Rugby Sevens.

Milo knock out tournament will take place after a one week break among the top 8 finishers.