Vidyartha College defeated their home-town rivals Dharmaraja College 17 points to 08 in their Dialog Schools Rugby League 2022 – Group 2A clash worked off in Nittawela on Saturday (16).
Both teams had lackluster starts as they made a lot of handling errors in the first 15 minutes of the game. But, slowly the two teams started to come into their own, with ball handling skills improving gradually. The opportunity for first points of the game came to Vidyartha College in the form of a penalty. Menuka Thillakaratne missed the regulation kick to the shock of the Vidyartha fans.
But shortly after the mistake, Vidyartha, who had gradually crept in towards the opposition territory, scored the first try of the game as their prop forward Kavishka Wijeratne went over the line. Thillakarathne who missed the first penalty opportunity, converted the try successfully to give his team the early 7-point advantage. (7-0)
Throughout the rest of the first half, both teams had opportunities to score but neither could make the most of those opportunities as the teams went into the break with the scores reading 7-0 in favour of Vidyartha.
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Most of the second half was played in Vidyartha territory as the Rajans tested their defense to the maximum. But, the Tigers stood firm and managed to see off wave after wave of Dharmaraja attack to keep their lead in tact.
After nearly 20 minutes of play in the opposition half, the Rajans finally managed to score a try through their co-captain/center Thenuka Wickramasinghe. Sawmya Wijesiri missed the straightforward conversion.(7-5)
Vidyartha quickly hit back through second row Nipun Weerasinghe who went over the whitewash to score the second try for the eventual winners. Thillakaratne did the rest to claim the extra 2 points with the conversion. (14-5)
With Dharmaraja badly searching for more scoring opportunities, co-captain Sawmya Wijesiri got his radar correct this time to make the match more interesting, kicking through penalty. (14-8)
However, Vidyartha had the last laugh when a penalty was awarded to them at the stroke of the final whistle which Thillakaratne successfully sent between the goal posts to effectively end the game. (17-8)
Full Time: Vidyartha College 17 (2T, 2C, 1P) – Dharmaraja College 08 (1T, 1P)
NDB Player of the Match: Menuka Thillakaratne (Vidyartha College)
Point Scorers for Vidyartha College
Kavishka Wijerathna 1T, Nipun Weerasinghe 1T, Menuka Thillakaratne 2C, 1P
Point Scorers for Dharmaraja College
Thenuka Wickramasinghe 1T, Saumya Wijesiri 1P
