S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia clinched a thrilling 29-28 win against Kingswood College, Kandy in their Schools Rugby League season opener at the Big Club Grounds yesterday (7).
Both teams earned bonus points, scoring four tries each.
Kingswood No. 8 Maduranga Pushpakumara started off the season with a bang as he scored the first try of the game within the first two minutes to put the Randles Hill team on top. The under-the-post conversion was slotted cleanly by seasoned campaigner Rivin Baudween.
It took around 10 minutes for S. Thomas’ to hit back through a try by Aman Imran, which was orchestrated off a good rolling maul. Mayanka Dias made no mistake with the conversion.
After 15 minutes, the Thomians got their act together to score yet again through a Mckyle Karunaratne try. Dias slotted the extras.
Kingswood equalised pretty soon by capitalising on the mistakes – in the form of sloppy passes – by the Thomians. Chanidu Adhikari was the try scorer.
Half-time: STC 14-14 Kingswood
STC kicked off the second essay with a superb start as Tieshya Aluwihare scored in the right flank within seconds after the second half started. Dias continued his sublime kicking form. STC went up 26-14 with a well-coordinated try by their forwards as they almost sealed the game.
Dias rose to the occasion yet again as he put over a game-deciding penalty 20 minutes before the final whistle.
With just five minutes to go, centre Ashik Azmi gave hope for the lads from the hills with a converted try.
The match went down to the wire as Kingswood scored in the very last minute of the game with brilliant place kicking and made it a one-point affair.
It was a stop-start affair with both teams making many mistakes. Kingswood gave away more penalties, which was a reason for their loss, and relied on their pack more than their line. The match could have ended differently if they had used their line more than their forwards.
STC were clearcut favourites and the heat played a big part in the game.
Full-time: STC 29 (4T 3C 1P) beat Kingswood 28 (4T 4C)