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Josephians retain Rev. Fr. Basil Weeratunga memorial trophy

Posted on 22 March 2015 by admin

Joes Rugby
Courtesy: Sunday Island by Roshen Steelman.

 


St. Joseph’s College, Darley Road displayed a remarkable performance to beat rivals St. Peter’s and retained Rev. Fr. Basil Weeratunga (OMI) Memorial Shield after a lapse of 15 years.

When it comes to a Joe-Pete encounter, excitement and crowd support had been remarkable and nothing was different when the two teams clashed in their Under-20 Singer Inter-school Rugby Championship match at Longdon Place, Colombo yesterday with St. Joseph’s displaying a remarkable performance to beat School Rugby Sevens champions St. Peter’s 17-10.

The game also marked the 45th Annual Encounter played between the two schools for Rev. Fr. Basil Weeratunga (OMI) memorial shield and the Josephians retained the title after a lapse of 15 years. Josephians last won this title in 1999. St. Peter’s was the better team of the day having had the possession of the ball on most occasions but the Darley Road School came all guns blazing in the second half to turn the table on favourites St. Peter’s.

St. Peter’s scored one goal and one penalty while the winners obtained their points through one goal and two unconverted tries.

The game started with a rush of blood with the players of both teams getting involved in an ugly quarrel but things settled down and St. Peter’s made some attacking moves in the first half to win a 25m penalty in the 27th minute which was successfully booted by their captain Kevin Dixson after Josephians missed the first penalty of the evening.

St. Peter’s broke try deadlock in the evening when speedy Kevin Dixson ran about 30m with the angle receiving a pass from centre player Nishon Perera and sneaked past few defenders to touch down near right flag corner. Impressive Dixson’s boot went in the right direction to add the extra points with scores reading 10-0, 30 minutes into the game.

St. Joseph’s first points of the match came in the second half when one of Peterite back row players made a terrible mistake by knocking-on while collecting a high ball near the touch line and Josephians capitalised the error perfectly to make their rivals pay through a Shehan Bopearachchi try in the 45th minute of the game. Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya, who had a poor outing kicking the ball, failed to add the extra points as the scores read 10-5 at this stage.

The game was evenly poised for an enthralling end with both teams making number of line breaks. Peterites were dealt with a major blow when their play maker Dixson went out of the game due to an injury.

St. Joseph’s came up with another score when big-made Stephan Gregory, with the support of the forwards, crossed try line under the post. Kurumbalapitiya was spot-on with the kick as the Josephians led for the first time of the match with scores reading 12-10.

With the crowd shouting Joseph…, Joseph…, the Darley Road team scored another try with only one minute to go for the final whistle rubbing salt on Peterites’ wounds. Nimesh Priyankara was the ball carrier to cross the try line.

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