Antonians hold the edge

Singer League 2019 – Plate

By Shamseer Jaleel

St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota will be playing their second game in round two of the Plate encounter when they battle it out against Vidyartha College at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium today.

Kick-off is scheduled at 4 pm.

Katugastota Antonians had a poor first round in the Cup segment losing out four games and securing only a win against the last-placed Zahira outfit in a close encounter played in Colombo. They started off round two by beating the Rajans 24/21. 

They will miss out on Mohamed Makarim, a fly-half usually a safe player with kick to touch and kick at goal but he is injured and very unlikely to be part of the outfit for this season as he was advised by the doctor to rest for four months. 

Deputy of the outfit Lashan Mahindaratne will lead the outfit. Antonians have some outstanding players in their lineup such as Isuru Ariyapala, Suhail Wazeem and Mahindaratne. They last won the league in 2001 under Tikiri Dissanayake. They are coached by Ronny Ibrahim.

Meanwhile Vidyartha too have a good outfit coached by one of their old boys and former Navy and National player Sumedha Malawana. After an impressive start in the plate round one they drew with Zahira at Nittawela last weekend. Vidyartha will badly need a win in order to keep their hopes alive to secure a place in the Cup segment in 2020.

Referee Gihan Yatawara