Kingswood beat trinity in thriller

Tuesday, 27 March 2018 01:24 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Kingswood - 23 points

Trinity - 21 points

Kingswood College played to a pattern and lasted the full 70 minutes of play to beat Trinity College by 23 points (1 goal, 2 tries, 2 penalties) to 21 points (3 goals) win at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium yesterday (26 March).

At the short breather Kingswood led 15/7.

Kingswood settled in early and played running rugby through their speedy three quarter line. They looked threatening a number of times. Skipper Weligampola was in peak form with some powerful runs. He was well supported by Mohamed Shashan. Trinity once again looked shaky and panicked at situations putting them under pressure. They missed out on two try-scoring opportunities early in the first half, due to some rock solid defence by the Kingswoodians.

After the turnaround, Trinity played cohesive rugby but ball handling was still below standard. They looked threatening with stand-in captain Naveen Rajaratnam, Warren Weerakoon and Vishwa Ranaraja being outstanding. Two points down, Trinity fought back, attacking in the Kingswood half, but ran out of time. The only plus point from this game was that the accuracy in kicking at goal improved from the Trinity camp. They missed out on their skipper Avishka Sheik, who was injured but will be fit for their next game against Thomians.

Kingswood drew first blood in the 8th minute of the game through a short line-out where their burly prop forward Milan Weerasinghe went over for a try. Hirusha Sampath missed the conversion. Ten minutes later, through a penalty kick, Sampath took Kingswood further ahead to 8 points to nothing. The next Kingswood move saw a sweeping three-quarter move where their three-quarter Sachith Seneviratne touched down. Scrumhalf Sampath added the extra 2 points to take the Randles Hill School to a clean 15 points to nothing lead. On stroke of halftime Trinity winger Janindu Ratnayake handed off a few defenders to touch down. Trinity flyhalf Akitha Sakalasuriya was on target with the kick at goal.

After the turn around Kingswood looked threatening through their centre, Mohamed Shashan, who split the Trinity defence number of times. Meanwhile Sampath put Kingswood further ahead through a 30 meter penalty kick. The next move saw Trinity scoring through their replacement player Mecan Yashwanth. Akitha Sakalasuriya added the extra 2 points to cut the deficit to 4 points. Next move saw Kingswood extending their lead through a dandy try by Ruchira Ekanayake. Trinity, who kept on attacking, scored through their dashing centre, Warren Weerakoon. Mirindu Jayasundera added the extra 2 points to reduce the gap to 2 points. Though Trinity kept on attacking in a number of moves, Kingswood defence looked rock solid to keep the opponent side away from scoring again.

With this win Kingswoodians ended their losing streak which ran in to 9 years. Their last win against Trinity was in the year 2008.

Referee Priya Suranga

Trinity won the Under 18 encounter 17/0

With one week break, Trinity will host Thomians while Antonians will host Kingswoodians at the same venue on 7 April

Wesley win

Wesley College scored their first win this season when they edged out D S by 5/0 at the CR & FC rugby grounds.

At the short breather scores were deadlocked at nil all. (SJ)