S. Thomas' College Vs Isipathana College - 2009 (STC - 28 : IC - 12)
played on
Saturday, the 2nd May 2009 at the Havelock Grounds Colombo.
Thomians in
memorable 28-12 win over Isipatana
Jatila Karawita -
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/05/03/spo20.asp
A stirring second-half
rally which resulted in a whopping unanswered 25 points being scored
through a mixture of supreme fitness and sensible rugby enabled S.
Thomas’ College to post a memorable 28-12 win over a patchy
Isipatana MV XV in their Under-20 `A’ Division Tier `A’ Inter-school
League tournament match ended at Havelock Park, last evening.
The winners collected
their points through two goals, a try and three penalty goals to
which the losers replied with a goal and a try, in a game played at
a furious pace from start to finish.
S. Thomas’ smarting
from their 33-37 loss to Royal last week, despite another terrific
second-half fight-back, ensured there will be no repeat this time
around, as they knocked the stuffing out of the Havelock Town lads
after the turn around.
Trailing 3-12 at the
interval, the lads from Mount Lavinia launched a magnificent
counter-attack starting in the 43rd minute through prop R.
Kodithuwakku who crashed over from a mid-field break which ensued
after a close-range line out in the Isipatana `22’.
With left winger
Arjuna Manoharan’s conversion the Thomians narrowed the scores 10-12
before the place kicker fired two 35-metre penalty goals in the 47th
and 65th minutes respectively.
With 15 minutes still
left for the final whistle of referee Aruna Jayasekera, S. Thomas’
led 16-12 before another two opportunistic tries scored by
replacement prop A. M. Andrado and number eight Rajindra Gunasekera
in the last 10-minutes of the game sealed a deserved victory for
them.
Earlier, though, after
a promising start by S. Thomas’ it was Isipatana MV who made an
impact to shoot to a 12-3 half-time lead.
The Thomians drew
first blood in the 15th minute through a Arjun Manoharan’s penalty
goal, but from then onwards the green shirts took over to score two
fluently worked off tries.
Crack left-wing
Vishwamithra Jayasinghe added the finishing touches to a beautiful
move begun by his skipper and inside centre Niroshana Fernando who
sent out a cut-out pass before the fleet-footed three-quarter went
under the posts in the 20th minute.
With full-back Prasad
Devinda’s conversion Isipatana led 7-3. Seven minutes later, number
eight Tharindu Siriwardena barged over from a forwards rush to make
the score 12-3 as a result of the full-back’s failed conversion.
However, following the
turn around S. Thomas’ got their act together and aided by a solid
defence and wonderful staying power of their forwards saw them
nailing one of their fiercest rivals in the domestic schools rugby
arena for the second consecutive year.
For the winners their
goal-kicker Arjun Manoharan also stood out with a personal haul of
13 points through three penalty goals and two conversions as they
proved their 17-15 win over the same school in 2008 was no
flash-in-the-pan.
Arjun kicks
Pathana to submission
By M. Shamil Amit -
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090503/Sports/sp202.html
S.Thomas’ who missed
out in their second half rally in the encounter against traditional
rivals Royal in the previous game got it right this time to defeat
the strong Isipathana side by 28-12 in their inter-school rugby
encounter played at Havelock Park yesterday.
The Thoras trailing 3-12 at the breather came back with a vengeance
to post a further 25 points in the second half as against nothing to
the Patanas. The Thomians in the process accumulated their points
through two goals, one try and three penalties to Isipthana’s one
goal and a try.
In fact it was their full back Arjun Manoharan who was their hero as
he secured crucial points for his team. He was responsible in
booting over the three penalties and then making a conversion
contributing 11 points. The Thomians drew first blood when in the
third minute Arjun got them ahead by booting over a penalty.
The Thomians in this half attacked with cohesion but they lacked the
finish which was needed the most. The Isipathanians on the other
hand made use of the opportunities they received as they made their
first move in the 16th minute with winger and play maker Vishwajith
Jayasinghe going past several Thomians defenders to complete a try
under the post giving full back Prasad Devinda an easy kick at goal.
The Patanas increased the lead 11 minutes later through a try from
prop forward Tharindu Seneviratne but missed out on the conversion.
This gave the Patanas a 12-3 lead at which time referee Aruna
Jayasekera blew the short whistle.
The turn around saw
the Thomians making waves of moves and succeeded through a try from
centre William Rudra with Arjun adding the extra points. They
continued the domination and then surged ahead with a penalty booted
over by Arjun.
Isipathana though being rattled in this session failed to take
advantage of taking the lead as they missed easy scoring
opportunities due to poor ball handling and adding to that fluffed a
penalty that was offered. The Thomians undeterred came back and
their hero Arjun put them further ahead making no mistake with a
penalty offered in the 26th minute.
Thomian prop forward Amrik Andrado almost hit the nail in the coffin
seven minutes away from the finish with a peach of a try from a
melee with again Arjun making no mistake with the conversion. Number
8 Rajindra Gunasekera put the issue beyond doubt by going over for a
try down the left corner flag with seconds from the final whistle
but this time Arjun was unlucky as his kick at goal which was a
difficult one struck the goal post. Nevertheless the Thoras were
assured of victory with this final try.
Thomians
prevail over Isipathana
By M Naushad Amit -
http://www.nation.lk/2009/05/03/sports2.html
In a contest between strength and speed, the strong S. Thomas’ side
prevailed to record a thrilling win over the speedy Isipathana by
28-12 after trailing 3-12 at half time in an Under-20 President’s
League inter-school rugby match played at Havelock Park yesterday.
S. Thomas’ collected their points through three tries of which two
of them were converted and three penalties. Isipathana scored two
tries and managed to convert only one. Though S. Thomas’ had a clear
16 points deficit at the end of the final whistle, they were taken
ashore mainly by their place kicker, fullback Arjun Manoharan who
managed to collect 13 points with his accurate kicking. Manoharan
put across all three penalties that came in S. Thomas’ favour and
also successfully converted two of the three tries. His third
attempt just missed as the ball hit the post.
The Thomians drew
first blood when Manoharan put through an early penalty to lead
3-nil in the early stage of the game. But Isipathana taking home
ground advantage to account retaliated with two tries which came
from wing-three-quarter Vishwamitra Jayasinghe who ran a good length
and prop Tharindu Siriwardene who scored off a push over. Their
fullback, Prasad Devinda only managed to add extra points off the
second try as Isipathana lead the first half by 12 points to 3.
However S. Thomas’ who had a stronger team than the hosts breached
the Isipathana territory on three occasions in the first half. But
the speedy Isipathana players managed to hold the visitors back from
scoring a single try while S. Thomas’ made a few ball-passing
blunders that could have turned into easy points before the short
whistle.
After the turn
around Isipathana were given the shivers when S. Thomas’ hit back
with a converted try scored off centre Vivian Rudra and a penalty in
successive sessions to pip over 13-12. Star of the day Thomian
Manoharan added a further three points to the total briefly after
both teams tried to overpower each other to score. With a further
fifteen minutes of play left S. Thomas’ gained total control of the
game while all attempts made by the avenging Isipathana forwards
were averted. In the dying stages of the game Thomian prop forward
Amrick Andrado landed a try which was successfully put over by
Manoharan to further extend the lead by 23-12. No.8 Rajindra
Gunasekara scored the third try for the Mt. Lavinia School in the
last minute of the game which went unconverted. The game was
controlled by Aruna Jayasekara.
