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Biggest rugby surprise of the season
Joes drub Wesley
St. Joseph’s 12 Wesley 5
By M.Shamil Amit
Finally the worm turned. In the biggest rugby surprise of the season, the wooden spoonists of the Singer inter-school league championship St Joseph’s with five straight losses ended their season on a winning note when they turn the tables on the much fancied Wesley defeating them by 12 points (one goal, one try) to 5 (one try) after being led at the lemons 5-0 in their Singer inter-school rugby encounter played at Longdon Place yesterday.

The Wesleyites were nowhere near their true form mishandling the ball when there was an opportunity of scoring. They played like novices, where in the other hand the Josephians though making mistakes grabbed the opportunities that came their way. The Josephians forwards were more active and superior than their experience opponents.

The Wesley supporters anticipating an easy win were disappointed though they made the first scoring of the day, but it took them over 20 minutes to penetrate the Josephian defence through a try from winger Niranjan Wickramaratne which went unconverted. From then on it was a ding dong battle with the Josephians taking control of the game. With no more scoring done the lemons were taken with Wesley leading 5-0.At the turn round the Josephians playing with a better plan kept the Wesley guessing with some sporadic moves and they succeeded in scoring when centre Silhan Cassim went over for a try but fly half Dilshan Perera failed with the conversion. Inspired by this move the Joes went on the attack and missed out in taking the lead when Dilshan Perera again failed to boot over an under the post penalty.

But this did not discourage the Joes as their forwards played a tireless game and with eight minutes left for play they went into the lead with a try scored by number eight Sachintha Silva from a line out close to the scoring line and this time Dilshan Perera made no mistake with the conversion. St Joseph’s 12 Wesley 5.

The Wesleyites had some opportunities of surging ahead but the poor handling by their forwards let them down. Nevertheless the win would not prevent the Josephians from being demoted to the lower division but they would be satisfied of having being able to end the season on a winning note. The match was controlled by D.Nimal.

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