Unbeaten Science ‘Maroons’ sail into Under 24 rugby final
Science ‘Maroons’ SC and Old Wesleyites SC (OWSC) recorded convincing victories in the third week of matches of the SLR Under-24 League Rugby Tournament, continued during the weekend in Colombo.
Science ‘Maroons’ SC went on to remain unbeaten with their third successive victory in the tournament as they outplayed Petersons SC 62-7 at Mount Lavinia while the OWSC cruised to a massive 86-0 win over the Field Force SC at the Thurstan College Grounds.
Science ‘Maroons’ SC also had the satisfaction of qualifying for the Cup Championship final while the OWSC, with two back-to-back victories managed to secure their place in the Plate Championship final.
No doubt, Science ‘Maroons’ SC always looked the better side from the opening fixture of the tournament, where they defeated the OWSC 22-7 after a keen contest at the Thurstan College Grounds.
They never looked back from there onwards and further underlined their dominance with a massive 115-0 victory over the Field Force SC at the same venue before completing the league stage with another impressive performance.
Meanwhile, the OWSC will be quite pleased with their performances as they have made vast strides in this new look tournament after a disappointing start, where they lost the opening game against the Science ‘Maroons’ 7-22. But thereafter, the OWSC have really improved with their game and the turning point was when they rallied magnificently to pull off a comprehensive 60-0 victory against the Petersons SC in their second outing of the tournament.
Last week, the OWSC produced an even better performance as they capitalised every opportunity to record a smashing 86-0 victory against the young Field Force SC outfit, which would certainly give them a lot of confidence ahead of the Plate Championship final.
Meanwhile, the Western Province kept their hopes alive of playing in the Cup Championship final after recording an impressive 29-13 victory over the Southern Province at the Thurstan College Grounds. Western Province, of course started their campaign with a huge 119-0
victory over the Uva Province Team two weeks ago at the Vincent Dias Stadium in Badulla.
But this time they were up against a more confident Southern Province Team and the game was even at half time as the Western Province took a close 17-7 lead at half time.
The winners dominated the second half by adding two more tries to their tally while the Southern Province managed to put over only two penalties during this period.
In fact, Manilka Gunasekera had a fine game for the Southern Province as he scored their only try of the match, added the extra points, and also fired across both penalties.
The Western Province scored their tries through Lalanka Wijesundera, Chamith Sanjula, Inura Samarawickrema and Sudarshana Athukorala with Saranga Udawatta converting three tries.
Southern Province will now battle it out for a place in the Plate Championship final along with the Central Province and North Central Province.