Dharmaraja College adds another confident victory to their tournament total at CR rugby grounds beating Wesley College by 12 points.
A stranger entering the CR might have imagined Dharamaraja was a Colombo school while Wesley was from Kandy; the crowd support for Dharamraja was over flowing with the Kandy contingent present in full force.
Among this charged spectator atmosphere the game kicked in with much hope for both the schools. For Wesley it was about bringing back the lost glory in the last couple of matches. Dharamaraja College wanted to take the lead for best rugby played in the upcountry by winning the match with more tries to beat Trinity College through bonus points.
As the first half kicked off both the teams were playing a cautious game. They were almost watchful of every move they made careful not to make mistakes. However Dharamaraja took the lead in scoring the first try. Playing at number 3 H. Adhikari scored the first five points of the game along with conversion by T. Wijesinghe which made the total 7 – 0 in favor of the Kandy group. The next penalty was also by Dharmaraja College; T. Wijesinghe the kicker adding more points to the table.
To start off Wesley’s attack, R. Perera playing at No. 3 took the initiative. As the first try came unfortunately Wesley was not lucky with the conversion leaving Dharamaraja College leading by 5 points. Once again with another try the Kandy lads were gaining momentum. On the stroke of half time Dharmaraja totaled 17 points while Wesley remained at 7.
Returning to the game Dharmaraja was on fire starting off with a try by T. Wijesinghe who had infused a lot to the game already. He did not limit his performance at that but was the one to score the next try too. Finally upcountry battalion settled for 5 penalties in total for the game.
On to Wesley , the players were trying to get back into the game with more tries and they were able to make three tries in the second half. Yet this was not enough to address the total by Dharmaraja College. Scoring tries for Wesley College were G. Seigerts, B Jaranpathy and L Peris.
Breaking through the cover Dharamaraja College was back in attack for a try. This time they got another opportunity for a penalty. Unfortunately kicker playing at No. 15 went astray as the ball hit the pole but bounced outside. Battling back for another try at the final few minutes of the game, the No. 12 player of the upcountry camp was injured causing a bitter loss for Dharmaraja College just as they were about to witness the outstanding victory.
“Dulitha Madhushanka, who got injured, is a strong player and definitely we should work to regain the lost strength” captain of the Dharamaraja team, Rochana Hettiacrachi commenting on the injury. “We are about to take on some serious games. We want full strength so will make sure to get him recovered by then” he added.
“I knew we had to make a change in the game plan if we were to achieve our goal.It wasn’t about winning the game but scoring over four tries in order raise our bonus points” said Radhika Hettiarachchi the coach of Dharamaraja College, speaking to ThePapare team about the changed phase of the game. He also mentioned “We have had a good season this time. By now it’s clear we can overtake Trinity College in the tournament. As we train for every single game we do the conditioning of the players according to the necessity. This time was to score more tries”
As the game wrapped up marking another victory for the upcountry supporters for Dharamaraja College were burning red lights in the ground marking their victory. Despite Wesley College being on the losing side a fabulous game was played by them and needless to say with all schools dishing out top fare this season, the end stages of the league is set for some scintillating rugby.
