Skipper Rajaratne’s late burst try seals DSS victory
BY
The late burst lastminute try by skipper and centre Jayathu Rajaratne sealed a well-deserved
29-point to 20-point victory for D.S. Senanayake
College against Wesley in the Dialog Under-19 inter-schools rugby league encounter played at the
Royal Sports Complex ground in Reid Avenue yesterday.
DSS, having held on to a slender 22-20 till the last stages, saw skipper Rajaratne barging his way through for an under-the-post try, which was converted by fly half Shehan Umagiliyage, which gave them victory and also helped them chalk up their second consecutive win.
In fact, Rajaratne was the toast of the DSS side and the supporters as he went over for three of the five tries scored by them.
DSS, having taken a comfortable 12-03 lead at lemons, made up their points from two goals and three tries as opposed to a goal, two tries, and a penalty scored by Wesley.
The Wesleyites had to blame themselves for their defeat as they made a repeat of their previous match performance against St. Joseph’s with poor ball handling and, though they were in the attack for most of the match, ended with a poor finish by not taking the scoring opportunities they had.
On the other hand, DSS was much sharper and made good use of all the scoring opportunities they got. Even though the Wesleyites made the first score through a penalty booted over in the 17th minute by fly half Darrin de Silva, who earlier fluffed a penalty in the sixth minute.
Though the Wesleyites were in DSS territory for a considerable period, it was DSS who planted the first try in the 24th minute, with Rajaratne going over for his first try and fly half Umagiliyage adding the extra points, which saw DSS take over the lead 07-03.
Eight minutes later, they increased the lead with Rajaratne going over for an unconverted try, which was his second of the match, and the short whistle was blown in favour of DSS 12-03.
A short shower made playing conditions a bit tough in the second half, and though Wesley went into the attack, it was DSS again who scored the first try in the fifth minute from an unconverted try by centre Manura Peiris. Wesley, fighting back planted back to back, tries to reduce the deficit.
Center Senura Peiris went over for the first try, and the penalty was kicked astray. Prop forward Sabith Musheen scored the second try, and de Silva made the conversion, but DSS held on to the lead, 17-15.
With the game 26 minutes old, luck was on the side of DSS as a penalty offered after being fluffed saw them charging and taking advantage of the mishandling of the ball by the Wesleyites as flanker Govinda Wijeratne grabbed it to plant a right corner flag try. The kick at goal went astray, but they led 22-15.
The comfortable lead was short-lived, as six minutes later, the Wesleyites made a sporadic move to breach the DSS defence, which ended in hooker Siddeek Abdulla going over for an under-the-post try, giving de Silva an easy kick at goal.
With DSS’S lead reduced to two points (22-20), Rajaratne dashed the hopes of the Wesleyites with the match-winning try to give them a well-deserved 29-20 victory, and in the process, Wesley underwent their third successive defeat.