Trinity College Kandy produced a powerful display to bring down their arch rivals the high riding Isipatana outfit by 29 points to 10 in their Singer inter school under 20 Group A division one league rugby tournament match worked off at Longden Place yesterday.
The Trinitians going in as the underdogs completely stunned their opponents and collected their points from two goals and three tries having led 15-7 at half time. Isipatana managed to score a solitary goal and put over a penalty.
This was a fantastic effort from Trinity College considering the fact that the odds were heavily against them with just one coloursman in their ranks. But they dished out some absorbing rugby under wet conditions while proving their talent and potential.
In fact the wet ball and the soggy ground conditions did not prevent them from playing their natural run and pass game with some of the moves been initiated from their own territory.
Trinity College played with a lot of confidence as the match progressed and scored two late tries that completely sealed the game in their favour. Until then Isipatana of course had an outside chance of pulling off the game as they were trailing by a close margin of 10 points to 15 for a long period.
This was the stage that Trinity College really played their hearts out and held their nerves against an all out attack from the home side. They kept their goal line in check with a solid defence during this crucial period before adding the finishing touches in style.
Trinity College in fact got off to a flying start following two splendid tries during the first fifteen minutes of play. They made their intentions quite clear from the kick off and did extremely well to convert their possession into points.
Speedy centre three quarter Wishwajith Wijesinghe stole the limelight while crossing over the opponents goal line twice after they had formed the overlap quite beautifully. The Trinity halves combination of Adeep Hamid and Abdul Fahard gave a good account of themselves while initiating a number of scoring opportunities.
The Trinity forwards enjoyed a great amount of possession and scored their third try through flanker Rushmi Ramzin mid way in the first half. Isipatana responded almost immediately following a clever piece of work from scrum half Srinath Suriyabandara.
Isipatana then came closer to levelling the scores following a crucial 25 metre penalty from Dinusha Chaturanga shortly after the interval. But from there onwards Trinity College held the centre stage with a fine all round performance with fly half Abdul Fahard scoring their fourth try.
Trinity’s final try came during injury time following an obstruction with the referee D. Nimal awarding a penalty try which was converted by Kennon Armstrong.
