St. Joseph’s cruise to their first major final
St. Joseph’s were too good for Dharmaraja and as expected they came out victorious with a convincing 34 points to 12 win in the first semi-final of the Milo U20 inter-schools President’s Trophy rugby knockout tournament played at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
St. Joseph’s winger Sachith Silva and fly half Chathura Seneviratne set early pace for the Darley Road as the duo ended contributing the major share in their score with Sachith 16 and Chathura 11 for a total 27 of the 34 points they scored by them.
The Josephians in fact laid the foundation at the end of the first session of play with a comfortable 16-5Â lead at the breather before chalking up their points through two goals a try and five penalties as against to a goal and a penalty scored by the Rajans.
The Josephians came into the game as the favourites and lived up to their reputation as they meant business to take an early 9-0 lead with the game just under 20 minutes of play through three penalties with two by fly half Chathura Seneviratne and one by Sachith Silva.
In the 25th minute the Josephians extended their lead with Sachith going over for a try which he himself converted and four minutes later Dharmaraja managed to reduce their deficit with an unconverted try scored by skipper and fly half Chamika Perera before the short whistle was blown with the Joes lead 16-5.
On resumption Dharmaraja went into the attack and succeeded to penetrate their opponents’ defense in the very first minute with centre Bawantha Udangamuwa going over for a try and full back Ishara Deshapriya made no mistake with the conversion.
The Josephians were dominant overall against the Rajans - Pix by Amila Gamage
That was all the Rajans were able to do as the Josephians playing with more cohesion rattled their opponents, Sachith Silva the man in top form booted over a penalty four minutes later and then another in the 19th minute for Joes to lead 24-13.
The Rajans were unable to come into terms with their opponents’ robust play and was struggling for survival. The Josephians took things under control and dominated proceedings as they had the Rajans defense in shambles.
The Josephians almost had the game in their hands and they succeeded to further increase their lead in the 24th minute with Chathura’s left corner flag try.
Five minutes later skipper and winger Vinul Fernando’s unconverted try put the issue beyond doubt and with the Josephians way ahead with the score on 34-12 in their favour saw them playing a relaxed game before the long whistle was blown.
This saw Joes qualifying to a major school rugby final for the first time and now they will meet the winners of the second semi-final between league runner up Isipathana and St Peter’s scheduled to be played at 4.15 p.m. today at the same venue.
The three Milo U20 Inter-Schools Rugby Knockout Tournament finals of the Chairman’s Trophy, Premier Trophy and President’s Trophy are scheduled to be played on June 24 from 2.00pm onwards at the Race Course Rugby ground in Reid Avenue.