A late penalty awarded 4 minutes from time proved to be costly for Isipathana as a Valiant Vidyartha outfit left Colombo with a valuable draw in their Singer A division league match played at Reid avenue today. Isipathana college collected their points from 2 goals and 1 try while the visitors responded with 1goal, 3 penalties and a drop goal. Isipathana dominated the early stages of the game but couldn’t find a way through the Tigers defense. And against the run of play it was vidyartha who drew first blood in the 30th minute through a 25 meter penalty. they increased their lead to 10 nil when sloopy ball handling by the pathana defense enabled a vidyartha player to collect a free ball and score mid left. With 5 minutes remaining Pathana came back strong scoring two back to back tries. The first was scored by flanker Senal Deelaka off a forwrds rush while the second came thanks to some great work by full back Sithum Chathuska who had a great first half testing the vidyartha defense with his clever running down the middle. both tries were converted by Scrum Half k.Costa and pathana went into the break leading 14-10.After the resumption it was vidyartha who dominated as they virtually parked themselves in pathana teritory. They cut back the lead thanks to a neat drop goal set after some hard work by their forwards. Isipathana went into further dissaray when Center Shamal Chathuranga was booked by Referee Irshad Cader for obstructing an opponent. capitalizing on the numerical advantage the tigers shifted through the gears but only managed to put over a 3 pointer due to some desperate defense by the green shirts who came up with some good and effective tackling to keep their opposition especially their forwards at bay. Trailing by two points Isipathana missed a penalty but 5 minutes later scored through No.08 Arun kumara after some hard work by the pathana Skipper Kumendra Darmadasa. the conversion went astray and pathana leading 19-16 were trying to kill the game off. But once again capitalizing on crucial errors Vidyartha hit back and manged to convert the penalty kick to draw level 19-19. with barely five minutes left Isipathana made one last surge in attempt to clinch a winner but just as they displayed throughout the game they lacked composure and finesse to pull off a dramatic win.
Both teams will look to polish up their mistakes and move forward in what seems to be a thrilling schools rugby season this year.
By – Hisham Hameed
Best Wishes From – Isipathana College Online Information Centre Crew.