Anthonians in nail-biting 23-22 win

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen

In a match which had a fairytale finish St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota pulled off a sensational late try to beat Kingswood College by 23 points (2 goals, 3 penalties) to 22 (1 goal, 3 tries) in their schools Singer schools division I rugby match played at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy yesterday.

Kingswood led 12-10 at the breather.

The game swung vigorously from side to side which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats most of the time.

Just before the long whistle Anthonians planted a try near the corner flag which was goaled and the Katugastota school romped home with a 23-22 win.

The Anthonians took an early lead when fly half Maduwantha Kumara fired over a penalty followed by a try by flanker Dinuk Amarasinghe which Kumara converted to added the extra points.The Kingwoodians fought back through an unconverted try scored by centre W.A. Senek.

Just before half time winger Ranidu Janith scored by the post and fly half Laksitha Ranaweera made no mistake with the conversion.

On resumption the Anthonians hit back to take the lead when fly half Maduwantha put over two penalties, one a 50-meter kick which sailed over the horizontal bar.Ranaweera gave the cutting edge to Kingswood through an unconverted try. With three minutes to go Kingswood’s scrum half Shena Jansen sneaked through to score by the left post, but Ranaweera missed the conversion. In the dying stages of the match Antonian winger Prabodhana Bandara picked up a loose ball and scored by the right corner flag and this time Maduwantha was right on target to add the extra points.

Anura Rankothge refereed.