Rinesh Silva in action
The individual brilliance of Rinesh Silva was a great consolation for Isipathana College during the 2023 Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament, which concluded last week.
The dynamic wing three quarter was in tremendous form throughout this season as he emerged as the highest try scorer as well as the top points scorer of the tournament from his eight matches.
Rinesh exhibited his all-round rugby skills in the two Super Round segment matches despite his team losing both fixtures against Royal College (17-22) and St. Peter’s College (17-28) respectively.
In fact he was the star for Isipathana in the game against Royal as he figured in a vain effort while contributing 10 out of their 17 points in the form of one try, one conversion and one penalty Rinesh was instrumental in giving Isipathana the early lead with a neat penalty and followed up with a magnificent try midway in the second half as he added the extra points to keep their hopes alive.
Rinesh once again made his presence felt in the league decider against St. Peter’s as he was among the try scores, converted both their tries and was on target with their solitary penalty.
Altogether, this has been another splendid season for Rinesh, who has turned out to be the playmaker for Isipathana and has been in the thick of every move, scoring tries and converting them in addition to putting over some crucial penalties.
One of his best performances came in the high-profile first-round game against S. Thomas’ where he rose to the big occasion with a match-winning contribution as Isipathana cruised to a smashing 29-20 victory at Mount Lavinia.
Rinesh made his presence felt early in the game and powered his way to score the second try of the match and followed up with three conversions – all from difficult angles – in addition to a penalty shortly before half time.
The game against St. Anthony’s was also a memorable outing for Rinesh as he dazzled with two magnificent tries, made three conversions, and fired across two penalties during their 37-26 triumph at Longden Place.
Rinesh was the star player once again as he ran down two tries and made two conversions to help Isipathana beat Wesley 24-11 in their last first-round fixture of the tournament.
Meanwhile, S. Thomas’ College fly half Yehan Bulathsinghalage finished as the second-best points scorer with a tally of 55 points from six matches and trailing him by just one point is Sahan Keerthisiri (54 points) of St. Anthony’s College from eight matches.
In addition, Royal College full back Nabil Yehiya came into the reckoning during the latter stages of the tournament and ended up with a tally of 45 points from his eight matches.
Sudesh Jayawickrama (St. Peter’s), Roshen Kumara (St. Anthony’s) and Naveen Marasinghe (St. Joseph’s) all finished with six tries each in the league tournament.
Chris Dhambarage