CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – St. Peter’s College produced champagne rugby to emerge undisputed Inter-Schools Under-19 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament champions for 2023.
The unbeaten Peterites rallied around magnificently and overcame the defending champions Isipathana College 28-17 in the Super Round segment league decider played at Bambalapitiya.
St. Peter’s stuck to their basics and proved their supremacy as they collected their point from one goal, three tries and two penalties after leading 15-10 at half time while Isipathana managed only two goals and a penalty.
The Peterites also brought an end to a 13-year long wait to have last emerged ‘A’ Division League Tournament champions way back in 2010 under the captaincy of Keith Gurusinghe.
In fact, this was a memorable occasion as they led from the start to the finish and touched down on four occasions with a tactical performance where their defensive structure was even more effective throughout this absorbing contest.
The only moment that Isipathana thought that they could pull off this game was when they came into the reckoning twice shortly before half time to make it 10-15 and later in the second half when they reduced to deficit to 17-20.
But on both occasions, St. Peter’s handled the pressure quite beautifully and were patient in their attack and were eventually rewarded for some excellent rucking and support play, which was the key factor in their success.
The other significant difference between the two teams was that the Peterites were more dynamic in executing their touch kicks and always had a territorial advantage with fly half Windya de Mel making a fine impact with his accurate kicks.
The Television Match Official (TMO) certainly played a huge role in this game as the on-field referee Ishanka Abeykoon had to go upstairs to confirm two of the four tries scored by the home side.
On both occasions the TMO Irshad Cader made the precise decision, which of course, helped the cause of St. Peter’s with Dulaj Navodya and Dineth Ranasinghe as the beneficiaries.
But it was speedy wing three quarter Yumeth Shehara who gave St. Peter’s the early lead with a brilliant try in the sixth minute and followed up with a vital penalty in the first half.
With the Peterites leading by just three points (20-17), Kushan Tharindu probably scored the decisive try for the winners when he added the finishing touches to an excellent three-quarter move.
Tharindu missed the conversion but few minutes later he landed a 25-metre penalty to increase the lead to 28-17 and put the issue beyond doubt.
