By A Special Sports Correspondent

The two semi-finals of the under 19 Inter-School President’s Trophy rugby tournament produced two finalists after well-contested games with Isipatana and League champions St. Peter’s booking their slots for the final showdown at the Sugathadasa Stadium on September 10 (Sunday).

The second semi-final between arch-rivals St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s produced a nail-biting finish with the lads from Bambalapitiya pulling through with a 16 points to 11 win at Havelock Sports Club. What must be lauded is that St. Peter’s have remained unbeaten this season and have a strong bench when compared to other teams. We saw how the Peterites were reinforced time and again in their semi-final game with able reserve players who stepped in and continued with the momentum on the field. Joes played well, but their downfall was probably the yellow card given away by skipper Navin Marasinghe in the 57th minute of play. Joes survived without their skipper for ten minutes and even managed to level the scores 11 all with a penalty by Ivano White. What must be mentioned here is that Marasinghe is such an asset to the side as an attacking player, but his role as captain must be questioned. Last season too he was the danger man and the main ball carrier, but this year the Joes could have done better if he improved his reading on the game by moving to the next level as a thinker and leader on the rugby field. It will serve the game well if coaches also concentrate on molding captains and instilling leadership qualities in them. But then again some may argue that there are distinct differences between leaders on the sports field and managers in the corporate sector. Abraham Zaleznik writing for the special edition of the Harvard Business Review of 2004 states that managers’ goals arise out of necessity rather than desire. He adds that on the contrary, a leader adopts personal active attitudes toward goals. He continues to add, “They look (leaders) for the opportunities and rewards that lie around the corner, inspiring subordinates, firing up the creative process with their own energy. There is enough here in Zeleznik’s writing for school rugby captains to pick up and get inspired. The school rugby authorities also can seriously consider introducing an award for the best school rugby captain during each season. There were a few occasions in the past when rugby authorities had an award for the ‘best-disciplined schools rugby team’ during invitation tournaments, but sadly the authorities didn’t continue with this award and made it a permanent feature during the awards distribution ceremonies at school rugby tournaments.

St. Peter’s did well to clear their semi-final hurdle in the President’s Trophy Knockout Tournament against St. Joseph’s with a 16-11 win at Havelock Park on Sunday.

In the other semi-final Isipatana did well to defuse a charge by Zahira; the first half producing an even contest with the lads from Maradana scoring first and taking the fight up to the Green Shirts. Zahira were trailing 13-10 at the breather. Isipatana then swelled their score with a barrage of tries in the second half; Navin Kanishka’s chargers crossing the Zahira goal line on four occasions after the turn around to seal the game. The winners ran down as many as six tries during the entire game and most importantly found an addition to supplement the place-kicking duties of Rinesh Silva, who has suddenly encountered issues with accuracy when kicking at goal. Skipper Kanishka rose to the occasion and chipped in with two conversions; most importantly taking away some of the pressure from Silva’s shoulders. Isipatana coach Saliya Kumara will vouch that one cannot ask for a better set of three quarters and it’s just about fine-tuning their skills before the big one on Sunday. Players in the likes of Heshan Randimal, Shahid Zumri, Chamindu Chirath, Iroshana Gamage, Shehandu de Costa, Kalindu Silva, Rinesh Silva and Nisaja Jayaweera have backed their skipper Kanishka with large-hearted performances this season.

Zahira must be applauded for coming so far this season having earned a promotion to Division 1 Segment A rugby after working its way up from Segment B last season. The other team that did exceptionally well this season was D.S. Senanayake which was quite unlucky not to make it to the knockout stage of the school rugby season. They too earned a promotion to Division 1 Segment A after playing in Segment B last season.