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by Chris Dhambarage

S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and Wesley College made a promising start to the Milo Inter-School Under-19 Rugby Tournament recording convincing victories during the weekend.

Even then the Thomian success over St. Joseph's College had great significance because they retained the Lady Jayatilleke Shield for the third successive year. They simply underlined their supremacy by running down three classic tries in the first-half. They got their act together from the kick off and made their intentions clear with the forwards winning a good amount of possession in the line-outs and set pieces.

Speedy wing three-quarter A. Kohonna sealed the game in favour of the Thomians by scoring two classic tries. He gave his side an early lead and came closer of scoring at least a couple of more tries. This was because the Thomians were prepared to run the ball at every given opportunity and they were rewarded with a commanding lead of 21-7 at half time.

The two teams of course got carried away too much during the latter stages of the game and were involved in a series of rough play. This was certainly not a good sign although the situation was brought under control immediately by the authorities. The Thomians were somewhat frustrated as they could not add any tries to their tally in the second-half. They were expected to go on the rampage and pile up a big score against their weak opponents.

However the Josephians came out with a sterling performance staging a fine comeback which certainly surprised their opponents. After prop forward Gayan Perera had opened scoring in the first-half flanker Dhanushka Perera produced a clever piece of work to score their second try shortly after the break. This try certainly brought the game alive and suddenly the Josephians were in with a chance of pulling off the game.

The Thomians came under tremendous pressure but they kept their cool and played out the remaining time during which period Wasim Thajudeen fired across a penalty to increase their lead. The Thomian third try was scored by fly half Dinal Faux with Thajudeen making no mistake with his third conversion.

Wesley v Carey

Meanwhile Wesley College also got off to a good start while outplaying Carey College 29 - 7 in their Milo schools fixture at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

The Wesleyites would have been hoping to pull off the game by a bigger margin but still it was a pleasing performance considering the fact that they had rested some of their key players. They were very much concerned about their annual fixture against the traditional rivals Kingswood College this week. As they needed to keep their key players in excellent form they went in with a young outfit for their opening match of the season.

Neranjan Wickremaratne who played an important role in winning the Western Province under-17 title recently again made his presence felt along with Naushki Fariz, Dhanushka Warnasuriya, Rukshan Omar and full back Shakir Badurdeen.

The Careyites would not be disappointed at all with this defeat because they had the consolation of scoring a try and also provided some anxious moments to the opposition. Number eight Nuwan Chamara who last week stunned the defending Milo 'A' Dvision League Champions St. Peter's College with a beautiful try again made his presence felt with a classic try.

St. Anthony's v St. Sylvester's

St. Anthony's College opened their new season with a hard fought 15-7 win over home town rivals St. Sylvester's College at Nittawela. This was certainly a close call for the Antonians who survived a fierce second half onslaught from the Sylvestrians. The Antonians were always in danger of losing the game before winger Sumith Jagoda put the issue beyond doubt with their third try of the match. The forwards gave a dismal performance losing valuable good ball in the line-outs but made amends in the loose with some hard running and clever passing.

The Antonians managed to take a 10 nil lead at half-time following two tries from prop forward Suranga Swarnatilleke and scrum half Prasad Chaturanga. But they were not out of danger with the Sylvestrians reducing the gap to 7-10 at one stage with winger Jeewantha Naotunna planting a spectacular try.

Inspired by this try the Sylvestrians launched a series of attacks during the latter stages which kept their hopes alive to a great extent. But they eventually ran out of time and the Antonians were lucky to come out with a close 17-7 win at the end.

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