The unbeaten Isipathana College have done it again. This time in a more spectacular manner. They have won the Inter-Schools Under-20 President’s Trophy Knock-Out title for the 11th year.On Sunday, at the Royal Sports Complex in Colombo, the ‘A’ Division League champions produced some champagne rugby to outclass St. Joseph’s College 49-22 in the final and went on to complete a fantastic rugby double for the 2022 season.Isipathana’s success also had a great amount of significance as they were able to notch-up the highest score in a President’s Trophy final while overcoming their own score of 47-12 against Royal in 2016.
But this time they were even more clinical and dynamic as they ran down as many as seven tries during a fine exhibition of fast open rugby that completely mesmerised their opponents.
This was indeed a very big day for Isipathana, who have achieved a great amount of success in the past without any reputed coaches, without a playground for practices and sans a gymnasium for their workouts.
Nevertheless, Isipathana seemed to have persevered their best for the last as they made their intentions clear from the kick-off and raced to an impressive 27-0 lead at half time to lay the platform for another comprehensive victory.
However, Isipathana came in for a nasty shock soon after the turnaround as St. Joseph’s reduced the deficit to eight points with a magnificent second-half performance. In fact, this was probably the most productive period for the Joes, who anyway made a vain effort to make a match of it despite the heavy odds against them.
St. Joseph’s certainly did not know what hit them in the first half as they conceded three tries inside the first 30 minutes of play and Isipathana looked like simply running away with the game.
The Joes, of course, tried to pressurise their opponents more with the high ball but they were unable to find touch and Isipathana were equal to the task as they counterattacked beautifully through their three quarters.
St. Joseph’s changed their tactics in the second half and decided to run with their backs and that decision proved to be quite successful with fly half Dilhara Subash playing the key role to their three tries. Even then, it was some real effort from their big number eight Naveen Marasinghe, who was unstoppable with two typical tries that brought this game alive soon after the turnaround.
However, Isipathana had a real game plan and they executed that to near perfection while adding four splendid tries during the last 10 minutes of the game that enabled them to complete a memorable victory in the end.