Peterites beat St. Anthony’s convincingly with bonus point

Sudesh Jayawickrema avoids Antonian tacklesAntonian scrum half Oshan Gunarathne slings out a pass

By Shamseer Jaleel

St. Peter’s College continued their unbeaten run courtesy of a superb first half rally ending in not only beating the Antonians but also to gain bonus point win when they got the better of the Hill Capital outfit by 39 points (6 tries, 3 conversions, 1 penalty) to nil at Bambalapitiya yesterday.

At the short breather Peterites led 29/0.

Unbeaten Peterites played cohesive rugby in the initial half running circles around the Antonians outfit who looked like mere passengers. They played very badly with number of handling errors. To their misery they lost out their play maker and skipper, Sahan Keerthisiri later in the first half for a Yellow Card offence. During this time lads from Bambalapitiya managed to cross over for three unanswered tries. Hosts ran in 4 tries in the initial half and collected their bonus point in the first half itself. Peterites controlled possession and played territory game very well in the initial half.

After the turn around Antonians did not get any better as they continued playing poor rugby. Peterites too dropped in their standard of running rugby and were able to cross over the Antonians line only on two occasions. For the hosts Sudesh Jayawickrema and skipper, Ashain Madugasge played their hearts out.

Peterites missed an easy penalty in the third minute of the game when Kushan Tharindu was off target. The hosts hit back soon afterwards through Dineth Ranasinghe try in the 7th minute of the game. Peterites who continued attacking received a penalty in the 18th minute of the game with Kushan Tharindu being on target to take the lead to 8 points to nothing. While Antonians lost their skipper, Sahan Keerthisiri for Yellow Card Peterites scored through skipper, Madugasge (2) and Sudesh Jayawickrema. All three tries were converted by Yuemth Shihara.

After the turn around Peterites scored their last 2 tries through Ranidu Ridmal and Pasindu Bandara. Both went unconverted.

Referee was Ishanka Abeykoon.