The Green Machine, Isipathana College, Colombo pulled off a superlative performance to beat Royal College, Colombo (21-15) in a nail-biting finish at Havelock Park Colombo. Isipathana skipper Daham Wickrammarachchi lifts the coveted Dialog Schools Rugby League Trophy. SLSRFA Secretary Nirodha Wijerama, SLSRFA President B.A. Abeyratne, Dialog Axiata Group Marketing Senior General Manager – Brand and Media Harsha Samaranayake and Ministry of Education Physical Education Deputy Director Upali Amarathunga  

By Shamseer Jaleel

Unbeaten Isipathana College ended their long wait for the League Title when they beat Royal College by 21 points (2 tries, 1 conversion, 3 penalties) to 15 points (2 tries, 1 conversion, 1 penalty) and win their Dialog League Under-20 rugby encounter played in front of a packed Havelock Park yesterday. 

This win by the Green Shirts came after 6 years of waiting for the League. With this win, Isipathana also regained the Maj. Milroy Fernando Trophy as well. At the short breather it was Royal who led 10/6.

The game was contested between two top teams dishing out cohesive rugby. The Reid Avenue outfit looked a yard faster in their approach early in the first half settling down well. Isipathana took time but settled later in the first half. 

Once the game proceeded after the turnaround, Isipathana played cohesive rugby to pull the game in their favour. Royal, usually a good line-out jumping outfit, looked pathetic in their approach. They hardly got the throws straight plus Royal hardly recycled the ball into phases. 

Meanwhile Wewala Panditha and Dodangoda spoiled all the hard work put in by Royal in the throw ins. Losing out a player for red card and yellow was too costly as they played minus 1 player for nearly 25 minutes of the later half. The Green Shirts were brilliant in their own throw in plus on attack 

After some solid work by the Royal forwards, their winger Pasindu Heshan broke through and drew first blood for Royal in the 11th minute of the game through a try. Royal fullback Nabeel Yehya who had a grand game put the conversions over. Rinesh Silva after missing one penalty put over a superb 40 m penalty for the Green Shirts to cut the deficit to 7 points. 

Then came the turning point of the game when Abullah Yusuf of Royal was red carded for a high and dangerous tackle on an Isipathana player. This left Royal to play minus one player for the next 20 minutes of the game where they slowly started losing the grip of the game. Meantime Malith Methsara put over another penalty to take the short breather at 6/10 with a 4 points deficit.

After the turn around Isipathana played with a lot of momentum. Malith Methsara put over another penalty to reduce the gap to a single point. Royal paid heavily for not kicking the ball to touch which allowed their opponents to attack and gain territory advantage. Isipathana scored their first try through their dashing Centre who is also a rugby player cum cricketer, Naveen Kanishka dummying his way through. Malith Methsara added the extras to take the lead 16/10.

Royal who never gave up used their usual rolling maul to score their second try by their hooker, Danuja Samararatne. Nabeel Yehya missed the difficult conversion. Isipathana put the icing on the cake through their last try by Praveen Stephan.

Referee was Ishanka Abeykoon

Dialog Senior DGM Harsha Samaranayake gave away the winner’s trophy to Isipathana but could not decide on the runner-up since one last game between Joes and Wesley is scheduled for today.

Isipathana also won the two junior games; the Under-14 by 19/0 and Under-16 with 8/3.

Wesley vs St. Joseph close battle today