Trinity fight-back to beat Joes 34/17

By Hafiz Marikar reporting form Kandy

Hard intelligent running by the Trinity College "threes" in the second half earned them a convincing 34 points ( 1 goal, 3 tries and 4 penalties) to 17 points ( 2 goals and a penalty) to victory in their inter school rugger match against St. Josephs College, at Pallekelle Rugby Stadium. It was the Josephians who led at half time 14-9.

Trinity's kipper and fly half Tarinda Ratwatte was the architect of the victory. His perfect dummying split open the Josephian defence for speedy backs to have a open day.

The Josephians, who have a crack side, found scoring difficult owing to the plucky display by the Trinitians in the second half. IN the first half it was the Darley Road boys who controlled the game with two goals.

It was a rousing game of rugby; it left the large crowd very satisfied. Trinity playing in their own den, had the edge on St. Josephs, they had a heavier pack, and their back line went in for short, crisp, passes, the sort of passes that the forwards could join in on -and they often did.

These things made the Josephian's job tough in the second half.In the first half the Trinitians had to listen to the opponents music, territorially, and in the second half it was other way, Trinitians nearly had two thirds of it. But in and out Josephian's attacked vigorously and all but, failed to score. In today's modern rugby. If you aren't playing on the advantage line and throwing flat passes you aren't playing good attacking rugby.

It was a exciting one for the Josephian's supporters who had come form Colombo booking a special train, and was anxious one fore those who backed Trinity.

Any way, Trinity who had St. Josephs on the defence for long spells in he second half was playing better rugby, Josephian's to a man played good rugger, their ball handling too was superb. The set scrums and the line outs were equal. All the, Trinity and St. Josephs forwards deserve praise for the spirited game. The Trinity halves worked well, the scrum half slinging out his passes accurately and fly half opening out the game and also finding good touch when on the defensive. Though the Josephian threes failed in attack they tackled well.

The finish to the game was fitting of the standard of attacking play that we've come to expect from these two teams over the years. we saw some great team efforts as well as brilliant individual play by some of the ruggeritesFor Trinity skipper Tarinda Ratwatte and Lochana Girihagama scored two tries each, and the kicking part was done by Tarinda Ratwatte. For the Josephians Visvitha Perera and H,.R. Gunwardene scored the tries with S. Kurugulapitiya doing the kicking part.

D. Nimal refereed,

The junior game went n favour of the Trinitians.

Easy for Kingswood

Defeating Dharamraja College by 50 points to 10 at the Bogambara Stadium yesterday, Kingswoodians once again took the William Weerasinghe trophy to Randle Hills.

Some good tackling by the Kingswoodians, and shrewd touch finding by their fly half, prevented the Rajans threes, much the better attacking line, from scoring.

It was the Kingwood three Quarters who dominated the game, fast off the mark and running very hard, they made the opposite numbers look slow and laboured in contrast.

Other wise, there was very little between the teams. Both sides were good in tackling, the forwards were well matched, and if anything, Kingswood had the slight advantage in this phase of the game.

Referee Gamini Indrasena.

The Under 16 game went in favour of the Kingswoodians.

Vidyartha in smashing win over Maliyadeva

Vidyartha College completed a smashing , 70 points to 3 victory over Maliyadeva College in a Division "C" - Group One rugby encounter worked off at Kurunagala. Vidyartha collected their points through five goals and seven tries to a penalty.

They got into business from the kick - off and virtually dominated play, in all departments of the game. The Kandy school boys showed a marked superiority over the opponents.

The scores were Isuru Lakmal the captain six tries and goaled five of the ties, A. Tilankara three, Delum Diheshana two and Lasthnatha athnayake one were the scores.

Sarath Madugalle refereed