S. Thomas’ College vanquished St. Joseph’s College 38-13 in their annual rugby encounter which was played for the Lady Jayatileke Shield at Mount Lavinia yesterday.

The Thomian forwards once again proved to be force and won enough possession for the three quarters to run riot. The winners ran down six dandy tries from which five came off the hard running three quarters. Joes responded with two unconverted tries and a penalty.

The Thomian threes were simply unstoppable when in full flight with centre Anurudhdha Wilwara beating the St. Joseph’s backline for pace, twice in the first half.

The team’s fly half T. Wickremesinghe made the score 19-0 in favour of S. Thomas’ in the 27th minute of play when he picked up a lose ball and ran through.

Joes laboured with the ball and made inroads into the Thomian half. However, some ruthless tackling by the Thomians stopped the Joes on their tracks.

St. Joseph’s foxed the Thomians with a move virtually worked across the field and flanker Chirath Perera breezed through to score close to the posts. Mayura Sanjeewa, who earlier slotted in a penalty, missed the conversion. S.Thomas’ led 19-8 at the short whistle of referee Orville Fernando.

Wilwara followed a chip kick in the Thomian half and then sprinted 45 metres, ball in hand, to put S.Thomas’ 26-8 ahead in the fifth minute of the second half.

Joes hit back in the 11th minute of the second half with a try by Madushan Perera.

S. Thomas’ made several changes as the game progressed but the players on the field maintained their dominance in the scrums and line outs.

The winners scored twice more with touch downs coming from winger Praveen Perera and hooker N.Koddithuwakku who scored off a forwards rush.

Manoharan and Wickremesinghe shared four conversions between them.