Late burst gives Pathana thrilling win
Isipathana and St. Joseph’s kept their fans on the toes and with 15 minutes away from the long whistle Isipathana scored three tries within the space of 15 minutes to secure victory 39-32 in their Under-20 Inter-school rugby encounter played at Longden Place yesterday.
The scores at half time were 17-15 in favour of Isipathana.
Isipathana accumulated their points through two goals and five tries to St. Joseph’s three goals, one try and two penalties.
Isipathana scored three tries within the first 20 minutes of play with number eight Devin Gunaratne, the first to score followed by tries from full back Chamod Fernando and winger Nadeesha Chaminda.
But only one conversion was put over as they went into an early 17-0 lead.
However, the Josephians undeterred gave back Isipathana the same medicine and scored back-to-back tries through number eight Gihan Perera and centre Chathura Seneviratne.
Chathura made one conversion and then booted over a penalty just before the short whistle.
On resumption, the Josephians playing with a different game plan went into the attack and succeeded to penetrate the
Pathana defence twice, first in the sixth minute with prop forward Shevan Gregory going and three minutes later centre Gemunu Kethiya barged through for a try.
Chathura Seneviratne made no mistake with the two conversions and the Joes went into the lead 29-17.
The Josephians also looked they would be able to break the hoodoo of having last defeated Isipathana in 1986 under the captaincy of number eight Nalin Perera.
Five minutes later Isipathana fly half Randy Silva sizzled through a melee to score under the post and with the conversion booted over they reduced the deficit.
Isipathana winger Nadeesha Chamnida sprinted almost 40 metres for an unconverted try and followed with his third try of the match.
In between the Josephians booted over a penalty and Isipathana at this stage led with a slender two points (34-32) before Chamod Fernando scored a peach of a try running over 40 metres to seal the game for Isipathana. Referee – Rohan Fernando