Joes down Thora in a thriller

St. Joseph’s College held off their nerves to record a thrilling 30- 28 win against S. Thomas’ College and claim the Lady Jayatilleke Trophy in a Dialog School Rugby League Championship 2022 match played at the Havelock Park yesterday.

From the moment of kick off, to the final whistle excitement was intact in this thrilling match, with both teams equally challenging the other, but it was the Josephians, who prevailed eventually. Despite scoring a try during the extra time, the Thomians missed out the conversion, thus suffering their second straight defeat in two weeks.

The Josephians opened scoring and counterattacked brilliantly to lead 17-10 at halftime, as they scored from four tries, two conversions and two penalties to their tally. S. Thomas’ collected their points from three tries, two conversions and three penalties.

Both teams had standout players who led from the front, while the Josephians was rather a clinical unit than their opponents. For the winners No.8 Naveen Marasinghe was the key man, as he contributed with a hat-trick of tries, in addition to creating opportunities and more importantly thwarting vital breakthroughs made by the Thomians. The next contributor was flyhalf Subash Dilhara, who converted two each of tries and penalties, while being omnipresent at important breakthroughs.

For the Thomians, flyhalf Yehan Bulathsinhala was brilliant right throughout. He scored two tries and put over two conversions and the three penalties that came in favour.

Marasinghe’s three tries – the opening of the game in the second minute, off a ruck, followed by his second in the 34th minute in a rather contrasting fashion, off a breakthrough to run few yards and penetrate the Thomian defence, and his third in the 59th minute, a repeater of his first, gave the Josephians the much needed boost. The remaining try, which came in the 22nd minute off prop Jehan Athukorale off a forward move was their team’s second try. Dilhara had the opportunity to convert two of those, the second and last.

Most of the scoring for the Thomians we r e done by Bulathsinhala, who opened their account with a penalty in the sixth minute. They took the lead of the game in the 12th minute with a try from No.8 and skipper Charya Kurukulasuriya, aided by Bulathsinhala’s conversion. But it was short-lived.

After the turnaround, the Josephians lost winger Rahal Jayawardene briefly upon a yellow card, during which time the Thomians scored their second try off Bulathsinhala in the 38th minute. With his own conversion they equalised 17-17, that was the only occasion they were able to match the Josephians until the dying minutes, when the eventual winners lost their second player for a yellow card when lock Janith Marasinghe was sent off.

Bulathsinhala made a brilliant breakthrough, after an offload from flanker Jaden Koch gave him the chance to crash far right, and an opportunity for the Thomians to earn a deserving draw. But they fell short of two points when Bulathsinhala failed to kick on target.