St Joseph’s snatch win in a thriller

St. Joseph’s College player Inosh Silva grapples with the ball against the Antonian defence (Pic: Pradeep Dilrukshana)

By M. Shamil Amit

A penalty booted over in the last minute by fly half Adriano Candappa made St Joseph’s College pull off a thrilling win by three points (23-20) against St Anthony’s College in the Plate segment match of the Dialog Schools Rugby league tournament played at Longdon Place yesterday.

The Josephians trailing 5-13 at the breather made up their points through four tries and a penalty to a goal, two tries and a penalty scored by the Antonians.

However credit cannot be taken away from the Antonians who came into the game as the underdogs as they gave the Josephians some torrid moments and made them fight for their win.

The first half saw St Anthony’s making the first scoring in the third minute from a penalty booted over by full back Daham Perera and six minutes later they surged ahead with prop forward Lakwin Manthilaka going over for a try but the conversion was kicked astray.

Despite the setback the Josephians counter attacked and gave the Antonians some torrid moments and they were rewarded for their effort and succeeded to reduce the deficit in the 23rd minute with scrum half Akshan Rashmida creeping through for a try.

But the Antonians struck back four minutes later with prop Lakwin Manthilaka dashing through to score his second try of the match but again the conversion was kicked astray and with no further scoring being done the sides changed with the Antonians holding on to a 13-5 lead.

On resumption it was the Josephians who made the first move in the fifth minute with prop forward going over for an unconverted try and the Antonians undeterred struck back five minutes later to increase their lead from a try scored by centre Bineru Vithanage with Daham Perera making no mistake with the conversion.

The Antonians seemed to be relaxing and the Josephians taking advantage scored back to back tries within the space of seven minutes first in the 23rd minute by fly half Adriano Candappa and in the 30th minute by prop Sathira Gunatilleke which was his second of the match.

With five minutes remaining for the long whistle and the two sides battling it out fiercely, the Josephians ended winners with the match winning and crucial penalty booted over by fly half Adriano Candappa