Two matches were down to be played today as the schools' season openers, one in Colombo, St. Peter's hosting Kingswood (KCK) and the other up in Kandy with Trinity playing hosts to DSS.
The Peterite – Kingswood match was played at the CR & FC grounds and from the kick off it was evident that the Peterites were not as fluent in ball handling as their supporters would have expected. On the contrary the Kingswoodians ran the ball at every opportunity and it was while they were in the process of running the ball in the 10th minute of play that the Peterite No. 7, Nishon Perera intercepted a pass and ran unchallenged to score under the post. Burah added the extra points and Petes led 7-0 against the run of play.
Although they were 7 points ahead, it was obvious that the Petes were not at their best. If their play at the breakdowns was unsatisfactory, their play in the set pieces were utterly amateurish and far below the standards displayed by the Peterites of the past years. Scrums at times were simply lost because the scrum half was painfully slow and many a line out was lost due to the ball not being thrown in straight.
That the Kingswood lads scored once only during the 1st half was only due to their own inadequacies rather than better play by the Petes. This Kingswoodian try came in the 20th minute, when they ran the ball from the Peterite half opening one side of the field and then the other for their wing three quarter to score by the right corner flag. A difficult conversion was put over by their place kicker. SPC 7 – KCK 7. Later in the 1st half 2 Kingswood players were sin binned one for a high tackle and the other for persistent foul play.
The Peterites got several opportunities to score in the dying stages of the 1st half when they were playing against 13 players of Kingswood but erratic passing, unintelligent ball handling and stout defence by the Kingswood players put paid to any of those opportunities being converted to points. The score stood at 7 all at the lemons.
With the kick off at the resumption, off a scrum that ensued when a Peterite player knocked on, the Kingswoodians scored their 2nd try and this time under the posts for their place kicker to add the extra points. KCK led 14 – 7.
After this try was scored it appeared that the Kingswoodians were tiring though they continued to run the ball at every opportunity that came their way while the Peterites though trying to do the same, made mistakes at vital stages putting paid to any chances of scoring. About the 25th minute of play the Peterite captain was sent to the sin bin for a tackle considered too rough by the referee.
The absence of their captain did not seem to affect the Peterite play adversely, in fact it seemed to have galvanized them. This passage of time saw the Peteries passing the ball among their three quarters and the ball changed hands between their centre three quarter and the winger twice before No. 13, Kevin Dixon scored by the corner right corner flag. Burah made the conversion count from a difficult angle to make the scores level.
The scoreline remained 14 all when the referee blew no side.
I have to thank my friend Mr. Erajh Balasuriya for providing me transport while having to hobble on crutches after my injury – says Algi.
