Royal, Wesley group leaders in the final week

By M Naushad Amit

Anthonian centre Amila Weligampola is tackled by a Peterite defender in the match played last Saturday at St. Peter’s grounds. St. Anthony’s registered a sensational 36-22 win (Pic by Pushpakumara Matugama)

As the President’s Schools Rugby League reaches its final week after a successful and exciting season, the concluded ninth week produced some balanced yet thrilling outcomes though the scorelines were not as high as those earlier on in the tournament. All five matches played in the Division 1 segment ‘A’ during the weekend produced superb rugby as some teams that did not do too well in their matches showed their true potential regaining momentum and a few upsets were recorded last week. Regardless of the results the standard of rugby has gained a higher peak which is a good sign for the upcoming President’s Trophy Knockout tournament where fans could expect quality rugby after the curtain comes down on the league which has reached its final week.
Defending league champions Kingswood was one of the sides to experience defeat at the hands of S. Thomas’ at Bogambara. Though the weather gods played a heavy role in bringing the match to a standstill, where the hosting team had to change their playing jerseys as the referee had a tough time identifying players of both teams who wore almost identical kits, the game was as exciting as watching a world cup final. Both teams failed to score a single point even after the half time until S. Thomas’ who are placed at No.2 in the points table performed their usual second half stint to beat Kingswood 14-nil.

A Thomian player attempts to tackle Kingswood winger Rajitha Sansoni in their match played at Bogambara Kandy on Saturday. S. Thomas’ won 14-nil (Pic by Rukshan Abeywansha)

Kingswood coach Nilufer Ibrahim speaking about his team’s performance said the players did not play up to their potential in the second half which ultimately resulted in losing their third game of the season. “Even without four of our senior players we did well in the first half but missed a few good scoring chances. S. Thomas’ played an equally good game in the first 40 minutes to draw nil-all in the first half. Then again they played well as a unit in the second half to gain the upper hand in the game while we missed a few tackling situations. Our defending was not up to the usual standard in the latter stages of the game,” said Ibrahim.
Kingswood is scheduled to meet Trinity that is one of the sides to make a good comeback this weekend at Pallekele. But there is some uncertainty as to whether the match will take taking place at Pallekele because of concerns shown by Kingswood officials who have requested a change in the venue after the ‘bee attack’ took place nine weeks ago during the Trinity-St. Joseph’s match. A final decision has not been reached yet on this issue but Ibrahim said the team is preparing well in advance for the game against Trinity. “We might play a younger side blended with a few experienced players. We have nothing to lose at this point. We will play according to a fresh game plan and look for a win. Our main focus at this point is getting ready for the knock out tournament in a week’s time,” he added.
Another sensational upset occurred last week when St. Anthony’s beat St. Peter’s by 36-22 in a thrilling comeback performance at Bambalapitiya after leading 14-7 at half time. St. Anthony’s who moved up a place to No.8 managed to place St. Peter’s at No.9 which is one of the rarest happenings over the past few years. The jubilant coach of St. Anthony’s, Priyantha Gunaratne said this was a very impressive and well looked forward to win despite a few defending mishaps in the second half. “Both teams played attacking rugby but at certain points our forwards were not doing well. St. Peter’s on the other hand played a running game and they handled the ball very well. But we always managed to maintain a healthy lead over them. Our combination was well ahead compared to St. Peter’s,” Gunaratne said.
St. Anthony’s will host Isipathana this weekend and Gunaratne further added that his team is in a positive frame of mind to record yet another win before the season comes to an end. “No doubt it will be a good game. We will look at all the possibilities to record a win against Isipathana,” he added while St. Peter’s will take on low seeded Mahanama this weekend.
Third placed Trinity recorded a narrow and thrilling win over Dharmaraja at Bogambara but had to go through tremendous pressure throughout the game. At half time it was Dharmaraja who held a slender 15-14 lead and in the second half, at a stage, the game was 22-all creating an open game for both sides. But Trinity prevailed to win the game 34-27 after a great battle as their coach stated that it was them who conceded the early points to Dharmaraja. “They mainly scored on our mistakes. They played a gutsy game to earn the points and played a well planned game. We went out to record a win but did a lot of mistakes in tackling. End of the day it was a good game,” Jayasinghe said.
Trinity will take on Kingswood this weekend which could be called as the best encounter of the weekend. Jayasinghe said that Trinity will field the best side available looking forward towards their fourth win of the season. “Our main target right now is to finish among the best three in the league. For that we know we will have to perform equally or better than their three-quarters. We are certain that we can create an upset,” he added.
Seventh placed Dharmaraja performing better match after match has impressed many in the rugby circuit. Their performance against Trinity was another good example of showing how improved they are. Dharmaraja coach CS Ekanayake said his side almost created history against Trinity. “This was probably the best performance a coach could expect from a side like Dharmaraja. We had a good chance of winning as the boys played with great courage. We went out with a certain target and almost everything worked out accordingly. But at the very last moment we could not prevail and had to end up on the losing side. But I’m very impressed with my boys especially Dharshana Atipola who played a captain’s role by scoring three tries. This was the best match of the season for me,” an emotional Ekanayake said.
Dharmaraja will come all the way to Mount Lavinia to take on the second seeded Thomians this weekend. Ekanayake was confident that his boys can perform well in this game too. “The morale of our players is quite high at the moment. You never know what could happen and we will do our best against S. Thomas’,” added Ekanayake.
St. Joseph’s has gone through a season of varying fortunes but have recovered lately to record their third win beating Mahanama 21-15 at Longdon Place. Though the Joes had things under control they could not prevent Mahamana from sticking close to their tail as both teams failed to score by half time. St. Joseph’s coach Dishantha Priyadharshana said it was good to have another win after some disastrous weeks where they ended losers continuously. “It’s good to be back in the winning mood. We had a few ups and downs in the season as well as this match against Mahanama. But the players did well to handle the game under pressure. This will be a very good morale booster for our outing against Royal next week,” he said hoping to perform well with their team at full strength against unbeaten Royal.
Royal experienced the hardest pressure they could go through before recording a convincing 22-3 win over Isipathana at Royal Complex. But until the dying stages of the encounter they were held down by Isipathana to the half time score of 5-3 which explains the thrills of the game. “Our boys played the best rugby that one could expect in both halves of the game. Due to a few defending mistakes during the final 15 minutes of the game we gave three tries which finally cost us the game. The final score doesn’t show the real picture of the game. I’m really impressed with our performance,” said Isipathana coach Shamly Nawaz.
Isipathana will confront St. Anthony’s this weekend in an encounter where anything could take place. Nawaz said nothing will change in their usual playing pattern. “We will do a bit of changes in the side but will not change our game,” he added.
Unbeaten Royal, who added another comfortable win to their tally, is on the verge of becoming the league champions for the year 2009. Bilal Yusuf the Royal assistant coach said the peak form reached by his team over the last three outings has made them the perfect side to remain as an unbeaten unit. “It’s not easy to maintain this form game after game. Although not playing our normal game, we managed to win comfortably against Isipathana in the end. Isipathana came with a plan and tested us for nearly about 30 to 40 minutes of the game. But our players managed the situation very well to gain control before the game ended,” said Yusuf who expects to end the season with a good win against St. Joseph’s. “We look forward to put a good show before the season closes,” he added.
Wesley who remains unbeaten so far in the Division 1 segment ‘B’ are on top of the list followed by Prince of Wales’ and Thurstan. Wesley has two matches to finish before July 4, against Vidyartha and Zahira where they hope to end up as winners. “We have cleared our toughest hurdles and we should do well in the two remaining encounters over the week,” said Inthisham Mohideen, the Wesley coach.