Some enthralling rugby is on the cards when the four elite teams battle it out in the Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament Super Round Segment, which begins on August 12 in Colombo.
The defending champions Isipathana College will be joined by two heavyweights Royal College and St. Peter’s College with St. Anthony’s College forming the line-up as the only team to represent from Kandy.
Isipathana and Royal of course, are in a familiar situation as last year too they were among the top four teams of the league tournament alongside St. Joseph’s College and Wesley College, who have failed to qualify this time.
Isipathana will start their Super Round campaign underway with the traditional fixture against Royal College for the Major Milroy Fernando Memorial Trophy at the Royal Sports Complex on August 12.
The unbeaten Peterites will begin their Super Round Segment when they confront the giant-killers St. Anthony’s, who are facing the tough task of playing both their games in Colombo.
Isipathana will be up against St. Peter’s in the second week of their Super Round match on August 19 at Bambalapitiya while Royal will face St. Anthony’s in another match on their home grounds.
In fact, Isipathana will be the favourites to regain the league title as they will carry forward the greatest number of points into the Super Round Segment with a handsome tally of 36 points from their six first-round outings.
The significant feature in their performances this season has been their try scoring potential and they have scored at least four tries in each game to collect the maximum of six bonus points.
Isipathana started off with a convincing 32-8 victory over Kingswood College and despite the adverse weather and soggy ground conditions they managed to score five tries at the Bogambara Stadium in Kandy.
In their next outing, they were put to the test by a spirited S. Thomas’ College outfit before emerging victorious 29-20 and scoring four tries at Mount Lavinia.
Isipathana cleared another tough hurdle in their third outing as they overcame the last year league runners-up St. Joseph’s with a superb second half rally, scoring four tries once again at Longden Place.
They brushed aside the newcomers D. S. Senanayake College 22-6 at Havelock Park and overcame a fierce late rally from St. Anthony’s to record a thrilling 37-26 win at Longden Place.
Isipathana then went on to complete their first-round segment with another impressive 24-11 victory over Wesley at Havelock Park.
Meanwhile, St. Peter’s will enter the Super Round segment with the second-best points aggregate having collected a total of 34 points from their six outings.
They were able to collect bonus points in four games against Dharmaraja College (34-7), Zahira College (56-7), Science College (29-0) and Vidyartha College (66-10) but they were denied a bonus point by Royal (11-5) and Trinity College (22-10) respectively.
Royal would enter the Super Round Segment with the odds heavily against them with a tally of 26 points with four wins and two defeats from their six outings.
They suffered a 5-11 defeat at the hands of St. Peter’s in their opening fixture but thereafter, they went on to record back-to-back wins over Science College (45-10), Vidyartha (47-3), Zahira (44-3) and Dharmaraja (36-18) respectively.
But their chances of winning the league title took a backseat when they suffered a shock 10-13 defeat against the traditional rivals Trinity in the Bradby Shield first-leg at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.
The Antonians will certainly cherish this historic moment of playing in the Super Round Segment after a long layoff after some real hard work even though they will carry forward a modest tally of 24 points.
In fact, their appearance in the final round was in the balance until the last week of matches as they eventually sealed their spot with a thrilling 34-17 win over S. Thomas’ at the Bogambara Stadium.
The Antonians made a fine impact in the very first match of the tournament as they stunned the favourites St. Joseph’s 22-12 but went down to D. S. Senanayake (19-23) in the next outing.
The lads from Katugastota bounced back with a nail-biting 30-29 win over Wesley and defeated hometown rivals Kingswood (26-10) before adding the finishing touches in a spectacular manner.
Chris Dhambarage