Double Blue lightning strikes St. Joseph’s
Wesley College brought an end to St. Joseph’s unbeaten record when they pulled off a stunning 15-13 victory in their Under-19 Inter-schools League Rugby Tournament secondround match played at Longden Place yesterday.
Wesley trailing 5-10 at the breather made up their points through three tries as against the two tries and a penalty scored by St. Joseph’s.
Wesley looked the better team playing with much more understanding and cohesion as they dominated the second half and had their opponents struggling for survival.
Full back Tharusha Jayaweera was Wesley’s hero while Kavindana Perera who scored four tries in the previous match against Isipathana was well marked.
But Tharusha did the honours when he went over for two superb tries while winger Theekshana Vithanage scored the third try for Wesley.
St. Joseph’s opened the scoring in the 14th minute through an unconverted try by winger Tharindu Maduranga.
Six minutes later the Josephians increased the lead with flanker Nehan Perera sprinting nearly 30 metres to score down the right corner flag.
However, both conversions went astray and it proved to be vital for the Josephians in the end. Wesley came back into the game with a vengeance and succeeded in breaching the Josephian defence with full back Tharusha Jayaweera going over for an unconverted try.
In the very first minute of the second half the Josephians were reduced to 14 players due to a sin-bin. In the third minute, winger Theekshana Vithanage received a long pass and bolted away for a try to make it 10-10.
The Josephians surged ahead with a penalty booted over by fly half Santhush Algama to make it 13-10.
However, seven minutes before the long whistle, Wesley went into the lead with Tharusha Jayaweera going over for his second try which turned out to be the match winning try.
Referee: Rohan Fernando