Peterites off to a winning start; beat Royal

St. Peter’s College had a good start for the Dialog School Rugby League under-20 encounter through a fine second half rally to beat Royal College 11/5 at Bambalapitiya last weekend.

The lads from Bambalapitiya led 3/0 at the short breather.

This encounter was played for the B.C. Anghie Memorial Trophy. This is the longest running Schools rugby event after the initial one was played in 1932. In 2013 a trophy was introduced to this traditional encounter. B.C. Anghie Cup was named in memory of late B.C. Anghie who was a master at both St. Peter’s and Royal. This was the 76th encounter between the two schools.

St. Peter’s dominated the initial proceedings though a penalty. They almost occupied Royal half in the initial half with the Reid Avenue outfit defending most part of the initial half. Though they had plenty of territory they failed to find the try line with Royal defence being of good class.

Hosts Centre, Umesh Shihara put an early penalty which was the only scoring in the initial half. Umesh also showed with some powerful runs to fox the Royal defence but was brought down inches before the try line. Meanwhile Royal too attacked well in the later half through Phillip Calyanaratne.

Akram Farook touched down for Royal which the conversion kick was missed by Nabeel Yahya. Royal lead was short lived as Umesh Shihara took the Bambalapitiya lads with his second penalty plus took the lead at 6/5 in their favour.

Sudesh Jayawickrema ensured no Royal comeback as he picked up a loose ball and ran nearly 25 meters for Peter’s only try of the match to seal the game in their favour at 11/5.

Referee was Ishanka Abeykoon. (SJ)