Rajans Dent Thomians Unbeaten Record In 46-8 Trouncing
- School Rugby Review
A Thomian player is challenged by two Kingswood players
Two of the three unbeaten schools in the B Division – Dharmaraja and St Thomas’ Mt Lavinia clashed at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy in what was expected to be a closely fought game.
However the Rajans scored a runaway 46-8 win over the Thomians and now seem clear favourites to top their Division with Wesley College being the only other unbeaten side.
The winner’s points came from 5 goals, 1 try, 1 penalty and 1 drop goal to which the Thomians could only manage 1 try and 1 penalty in reply. The Rajans led 12-3 at half time but really found their rhythm in the second half to run rings round their opponents scoring almost at will. They scored four more tries to add to the two in the first session and then added a penalty and a drop goal for good measure.
The star for the Rajans was their place kicker Thilina Wijesinghe who accounted for 21 of his team’s points with one try, five conversions, a penalty and a drop goal.
It was the Thomians who had control of the game in almost the entire first half as they confined play to their opponents own half. However they could not penetrate the tight Dharmaraja defence and their only scoring was through a penalty put over by Devin Jayasinghe.
The Rajans on the other hand were able to score twice through two tries by skipper Hewawasam and Fernando one of which was converted by Wijesinghe.
After the resumption the home team seemed to have found their rhythm and gave a exciting display of fast open rugby to sweep their opponents away.
Centre Madhushanka put the finishing touches to a good move to plant a try by the corner flag. The Thomians replied with a try by flanker de Silva which went unconverted but after that the Thomian resistance fizzled out.
Herath then touched down for an unconverted try and Wijesinghe then put over a penalty and a drop goal in quick succession. Wijesinghe then showed that his skills were not just limited to kicking when he ran through the Thomian defence to score another try.
In the dying moments of the game Madhushanka scored his second try in the match taking the score to 46-8.
