Second half burst takes Peterites through to semis

Peterite centre Yumeth Shehara dummies his way

Trinity winger Sachindu Wanasekera on the attack 

By Shamseer Jaleel

Three second half tries within the space of 10 minutes put St. Peter’s College in to the semi-final of the President trophy knockout rugby encounter when they got the better of Trinity College by 25 points (4 tries, 1 conversion, 1 penalty) 13 points (1 try, 1 conversion, 2 penalties) which concluded at Havelock Park last evening.

At the short breather lads from Bambalapitiya led 8/6.

Trinity played a good brand of rugby in the initial half with some powerful moves kept the Peterites from moving forward freely. Chamendra Dhanapala and Thisanga Dissanayake had a grand outing for the Lions in their last encounter for the season. Meanwhile, their flyhalf, Shan Althaf had an ordinary game, knocking on some vital passes plus majority of his kicks were not in to touch but into opponent players hands which allowed them to attack immediately, which put the Trinity three quarters under severe pressure. 

During the last 10 minutes of the game, he was Yellow carded, which gave no chance for the Trinitians to hit back with one player less. Trinity had plenty of territory but failed to convert into points plus made some basic errors on attack which put them on the backfoot.

For the Peterites fresh from their League title they looked a yard faster and their three quarters gained much needed territory. Vindhya de Mel, Kushan Tharindu and Sudesh Abeywickrema played their hearts out for the lads from Bambalapitiya. Their three quarters and forwards combined well to rattle the Trinitians in the later half.

St. Peter’s scored their tries through Pasindu Bandara, Kushan Tharindu, Vindhya de Mel and Dineth Ranasinghe. Yumeth Sihara was successful with one of the try conversions plus put over a penalty for the winners. Meanwhile Thenuk Fernando scored their solitary try with Shan Althaf putting over 2 penalties plus the try conversion.

Referee was Aruna Shantha.

St. Peter’s will meet St. Joseph’s in their second semi-final on 3 September at Havelock Park.

Sri Rahula College, Katugastota beat Sri Piyarathna College 27/7 in the Chairman’s Trophy quarter final while Sri Sumangala beat Ananda 24/20 in the Premier Trophy quarter final encounter which was played before the commencement of the St. Peter’s vs Trinity encounter.