Second half brilliance by S Thomas’ over-power a determined Zahira

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Naveen Henakankanamage

A hat-trick of tries from Dhanuja Wijerathne and Naveen Henakankanamage saw S. Thomas’ destroying  the fighting Zahira College 1st XV outfit to book their spot in the Milo Knockouts semi-finals at Royal Complex this evening. 

Full-time score: 43 – 10 in favor of S. Thomas’

Zahira’s thirst for top division rugby was finally quenched and their eagerness for glory was clearly witnessed by the manner in whichthey played the first 20 minutes.

The league runners-up were put on a tester in the first half of play with the Zahira forwards thrusting onward in every breakdown. Rash decisions by Zahira saw them wasting two kickable penalties and lacked the experience to get their opportunities converted to points.

After 20 minutes of restraint, S. Thomas’ College had the luck of drawing first blood when captain Pandula De Silva opted to take a 22 m quick tap. His decision to go for the tap was successful as Hans Walpola’s offload saw Dhanuja Wijerathne stepping in through the defense to score on the far corner. Ashwantha Herath missed the conversion but S. Thomas’ had the 5-0 lead.

Zahira’s forwards who had their ‘A’ game against the Thomians got their team the first try when they pushed through allowing Mohammed Elyas to cross over and score for the first time in the big league (5-5). With Niran Gunawijaya’s kick sailing through, Zahira had the tender lead of two points (7-5).

Thomas’ staged a repetition of their earlier try-scoring move off the quick tap and this time, Dhanuja Wijerathne crossed inside to score near the posts. Ashwantha got his team the extras as the Mount Lavinia lads had themselves the lead for the first time (12-7).

Zahira’s failure in the forwards in the dying minutes of play saw them deprived of a well-earned try. Taking advantage of the poor show of ball handling, Naveen Henakankanamage stormed down the line to collect the ball and allowed Dhanuja Wijerathne to step his way to the try line. Wijerathne sidestepped almost five players to score his hat-trick of tries, his team finished 19 – 7 with the conversion at half time.

Half-time: 19 – 7 in favor of S. Thomas’

Zahira College got a penalty kick in their favor to go in to double figures (10-19) but the with the second half unleashing the marauding Thomian Henakankanamage,  Zahira were left hapless.

Three scorching tries from Henakankanamage  saw the even contest slowly drifting away to a Thomian dominancy. The first try was the best of the three with him sprinting a good 120 meters from one corner of the ground, to the other while the next two tries were not very far behind in brilliance coming off on the far right. Two of the three Henakankanamage tries were converted by Ashwantha Herath to add 19 points to take S. Thomas’ to 38 points (38-10).

Ending business at the Royal Complex in style was Abheetha Navaratne of S. Thomas’ with a try as league runners up registered a 48-10 win against Zahir College to get the ticket to the semi-finals.

Zahira College played with much heart and needs to commendation for their first half play but could not take the positives through to the second half. Despite their loss in this encounter, the Zahirians will be looking to take this outing as a pre-preparation for their top division challenge that will commence next season.

The Thomians will face rivals Royal College in the semi-finals to decide who would go through to the finals that are scheduled to be played in a fortnight.

ThePapare.com’s Player of the Match : Wajid Fawmy of Zahira College

 Score breakdown 

S. Thomas’ College  – 43 (7T 4C)

Tries by Naveen Henakankanamage (3) , Dhanuja Wijerathne (3), Abeetha Navaratne

Conversions (4)  by Ashwantha Herath

Zahira College – 10 (1T 1C 1P)

Try by Mohamed Elyaz

Conversion and Penalty by Nirhan Gunawijaya