Wesley and St. Joseph’s claim early lead in U-20 Rugby Tourney

Wesley College and St. Joseph’s College took an early lead in the Inter-Schools Under-20 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament points table after the completion of the first week of matches.

The Josephians, looking for their maiden league title took the top place in Group 1 after an impressive 34-3 victory over Kingswood while the Wesleyites took the lead in Group 2 following their 38-7 triumph against Vidyartha College. In fact, Wesley’s success had a great amount of significance as they were able to record the biggest victory during the first week of the tournament where they accumulated their points from four goals and two tries. St. Joseph’s also had the satisfaction of running down as many as six tries during a dazzling performance, but they managed to convert only two of those tries.

The defending league champions Royal College and former league champions St. Peter’s College were the other two teams which were able to score four tries or more and collect a bonus point during their first outings. Royal scored exactly four tries and converted one of them during their

22-12 win over St. Anthony’s College while the Peterites performed little better while scoring five tries and converting one of them during their 27-12 win over Dharmarja College.

Meanwhile, former champions Isipathana College narrowly missed out their opportunity of collecting a bonus point as they settled for a hard-fought 18-9 victory against Science College, Mount Lavinia. Trinity College figured in the closest game in the opening week of the season as they rallied around to record an exciting 20-13 victory against S. Thomas’ College on their home grounds at Pallekele.