Isipathana College, S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia & St. Peter’s College Bambalapitiya booked their spots for the Milo All Island Inter School Under 18 Rugby Championships semi finals defeating their opponents in the quarter final clashes held at the St. Peter’s College grounds this evening.
Earlier in the week, Dharmaraja College was the first to get their qualification for the semi final round defeating Mahanama College 34-8 comfortably. Isipathana College also got themselves through to the top four with their comfortable win in the quarters.
Kingswood College vs Lalith Athulathmudali (Plate Semi Final)
The first quarter final for the day was where Kingswood College took on Lalith Athulathmudali College. It was an impressive run for the school in Mount Lavinia, Lalith Athulathmudali so far but had to walk out of the cup championships losing to Kingswood College 15-8.
The game started off with Kingswood College drawing first blood off an unconverted try on the outside in the first half and Lalith Athulathmudali took Kingswood by surprise to score an unconverted try with the use of their speedy wing three quarters. The Mudalians further added points to their score with an easy penalty to take the lead by three points (8-5)
The second essay was all Kingswood way with the Kingsmen’s scoreboard starting to tick. It was a wise decision by the Kingswood skipper to go for points in a 22m penalty to level the scores and the flyhalf made no error in sending the ball through the posts (8-8). It was only then the hill country lads hit the gas pedal cruising on to secure another converted to try to conclude the game at 15-8. The game changer for the 1st quarter final was the skipper’s decision to go for the posts in the second which tilted the game’s momentum around.
Full time score 15-8
S. Thomas’ College vs St. Anthony’s College
S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and St. Anthony’s College Kandy battled it out for the second semi final spot and the Thomians emerged victorious having trailed 6-0 at lemons. Full time scores read 19-11 in favor of the Mount Lavinia School. The two Antonian back to back penalties which came off the boot of Aruna Maduwanka in the first half seemed to be of no value as their counterparts replied with two back to back tries.
The sending off of their skipper, Dinuk Amerasinghe cost St. Anthony’s a try as the Thomians drew first blood in the second from a quick tap in the 22m region. It was the experienced first XV player Naveen Henakankanamge who crossed over for the try but failed to take the lead as Dias’s kick went astray (5-6). However it was Janith De Soyza’s try that was the turning point of the game where the small made speedster swindled his way through like a burglar to score for STC. As Dias kicked the angled conversion, Thomians took a comfortable 6 point lead (12-6). Extending their lead was their lock forward Mathisha Pathirana who went over for another converted try and the last minute gimmicks by the Antonians was not sufficient for a change of decisions as S. Thomas’ College booked their spot in the semi final winning the game 19-11.
Full time score 19-11
St. Peter’s College vs Wesely College
The most interesting clash for the day was the St. Peter’s Wesley clash for the final spot in the semi finals. Playing at home, the Peterites had the clear advantage but the doubles blues; Wesley College gave the home lads a good run for their money. It was a game of the #8’s in the first passages of play where both #8’s ended up scoring for either side. The Wesley skipper #8 Fernando and Peterite Mendis scored for his team as scores were level at 5-5.
Poor decision making affected Wesley at a point where they could have gone for the posts to get the lead, skipper Fernando opted to take the quick tap and failed to score the try. In the contrary, St. Peter’s College were quick to realize the need for points as Shifan Sivaraj successful kicked two penalties to take St. Peter’s to a final score of 11 in reply to Wesley’s unitary try.
Full time score 11-5
The semifinals will commence on the 2nd of September at the Sugathadasa Complex
