Royal and Isipathana qualify for Rugby League Super Round
Defending champions Royal College and unbeaten Isipathana College have secured their place in the Super Round of the Inter-Schools Under-20 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament.
Last week, Royal completed their preliminary round fixtures with an impressive 17-3 victory over St. Joseph’s College to claim the top spot in Group-1 while Isipathana remained on top of Group-2 after they defeated Dharmaraja College 26-12.
Even then, Royal’s success had a great amount of significance as they were under huge pressure and were facing a must-win situation to keep their chances alive of retaining the league title for a record fourth successive year.
Royal finished their league phase with a tally of 23 points from their maximum of five outings and they are almost certain to remain in that position with Trinity College, who have also completed their league matches in second place with a total of 22 points.
However, Trinity’s chances of playing in the Super Round stage of the tournament will entirely depend on the outcome of this week’s postponed match between St. Joseph’s and St. Anthony’s College. A win for the Josephians in their last league match will easily dispatch Trinity from second place and could even come on par with Royal if the lads from Darley Road pull off a bonus-point victory.
In contrast, Isipathana are having no challenge at all in Group-2 and have already built up a clear seven-point lead over their nearest rivals Wesley College with a game in hand.
The lads from Havelock Park have been consistent throughout the current season and have also emerged as the most successful team and the only unbeaten side in this tournament.
With Isipathana dominating this group, two other promising teams Wesley College and Vidyartha College are now battling for the second place to qualify for the Super Round stage.
In fact, both Wesley and Vidyartha are currently level on points with 15 points each from their four outings and their last preliminary round fixtures this week will have a huge bearing in deciding the second slot in Group-2.
Even then, the Wesleyites seemed to have a better chance as they will be playing the wooden spoonists Dharmaraja College at the Nittawela Stadium while in contrast Vidyartha will host the table leaders Isipathana at the Bogambara Stadium.
Another significant feature in this year’s tournament is the decline of the former champions St. Peter’s College who have dropped to fourth in Group-2 after a drawn encounter against Wesley.
Meanwhile, S. Thomas’ College, despite recording their maiden victory of the tournament against St. Anthony’s last week, are still occupying the bottom half of Group-1.