DSS survive Kingswood scare to triumph 31-27

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Mahela Indeewara Bandara (Red) leads the charge againt Bahrain.

D. S. Senanayake College survived a few anxious moments before pulling off an exciting 31-27 victory over Kingswood College in their Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament match played at Havelock Park yesterday.

The newcomers to ‘A’ Division rugby, produced another fine performance as they got off to a flying start and held on determinedly to record their third win of the tournament while scoring four goals and one penalty.

The Kingswoodians had a great chance to pull off their first win for the season as they dished out a tremendous performance in the second half before falling short by a mere four points having responded with two goals, two tries and one penalty.

The home side, at one stage, looked like they would emerge victorious by a big margin when they built up a commanding 21-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes of play.

D. S. Senanayake fired all cylinders during this period with scrum half Manura Peiris and Skipper Jayathu Rajarathna scoring back-to-back tries in a spectacular manner.

Peiris followed a superb up and under to touch down almost unchallenged while Rajarathna executed a splendid drubber-kick to surprise the opposition and fall over under the post.

Few minutes later, Peiris scored his second try of the match from a five-metre scrum and Rajarathna, performing the kicking duties in the absence of regular place-kicker Sehada Umagiliyage, was on target with all three conversions.

However, Kingswood made a brief comeback as they scored their first try in the 22nd minute with Inuka Sikurajapathy adding the finishing touches to a beautiful three-quarter move after receiving a pass from Imanka Ishara. The dynamic full back made no mistake with the conversion and Kingswood went into half time trailing 7-21.

After the turnaround, Kingswood played some magnificent rugby as they reduced the margin to 17-21 following a superb try from Inam Ishan and a penalty from Imalka Ishara.

Thereafter, D. S. Senanayake increased the lead to 28-17 with Peiris completing a hat-trick of tries before Isham went over for his second try to make it 22-28.

With the game heading for the last few minutes, Wijeratne landed a crucial penalty to increase the lead 31-22 but Kingswood kept their hopes alive with a push over try from flanker Hewage.

Chris Dhambarage