Colombo, April 16, 2014.
St. Peter’s drubbed S. Thomas’ by 44 points to 12 in a Group A match of the Singer U20 Schools rugby league tournament played at Havelock Park earlier this month.
The match which was expected to be a close contest turned out to be a one sided affair with the Peterites having things their own way. The Bambalapitiya boys surged through to a 20-5 lead at lemons and made up their points through three goals, four tries and a penalty as against to a goal and a try scored by the Mount Lavinia schoolboys.
Peterite flanker Kevin Dixon and full back Diyath Fernando had a field day sharing six of the seven tries scored with the other being scored by winger Nishon Perera.
However it was the Thomians who made the first scoring as early as in the fourth minute through an unconverted try scored by center Kasun Jayanatha. That was all that they could manage in this session as the Peterites ran circles around them with their first try coming in the 11th minute which was by Diyath and a minute later Kevin going over of which fly half Shamri Burah being able to make only one conversion.
Ten minutes later Shamri made no mistake with a penalty offered for an infringement for Petes to increase their lead 15-5. The Peterites succeeded to penetrate the Thomian defence again with Diyath going over for his second try with Shamri failing the conversion. The short whistle saw the Petes take a 20-5 lead.
The resumption saw the Peterites going into the attack and giving the Thomian defence a torrid time. In the sixth minute winger Nishon Perera’s sprint down the left corner flag for a try resulted in them increasing the lead and Shamri’s kick at goal being perfect saw the Petes stretching the lead 27-5.
The Thomians undeterred rallied to punch holes in the Petes defence and succeeded in reducing the deficit with center Navin Henakankange going for a try which gave Hans Walpola an easy kick at goal.
By M. Shamil Amit – Courtesy: Mirror Sports
But the Peterites from there on had the Thomians defence under tremendous pressure and struggling to evade relentless attack. Back to back tries by flanker Kevin Dixon in the 19th and 27th minutes though the conversions were fluffed sealed the game for the Peterites.
Full back Diyath Fernando put the issue beyond doubt with his third try of the match which was converted by Sandesh Jayawickrama saw them ending up victorious to remain unbeaten and also retain the Archibald Perera trophy.
Referee – D. Nimal