By Shamseer Jaleel

St. Peter’s College created the second major upset of the Singer League Under-20 Cup segment when they edged out unbeaten Trinity College 15-13, with the game going over 100 minutes due to injuries plus a number of Television Match Official decisions coming into play.

Defending league champions Isipathana kicked off last week’s matches when they outclassed Zahira College, who lost their way in this game. Nothing went their way and they will need to get back to their base sooner rather than later. Pathana led 26-5 at halftime, ending the game with eight tries to which the lads from Maradana replied with only two of their own.

Wesley College too kicked off round two with a good 23-14 win over St. Joseph’s College after losing possession of the L.E. Blaze Trophy to Kingswood a week back in Kandy. Meanwhile, Royal College came out with an impressive 31-14 win over S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia with the help of late second half tries to seal the game. This helped them regain the Michael Gunaratne trophy. 

In the last decade it was Royal which dominated the series, winning on eight occasions with the Thomians winning only in 2013 and 2016. Royal winger Shabith Feroze was in good form scoring one try which saw him beat the entire Thomian defence.

The Peterites, who won only two games, have got the best three-quarter line among all schools but they have failed to click as a unit in most of their outings this season. The Trinitians did not take them lightly but made a number of handling errors which cost them the game. Skipper Diyath Fernando, forward Omar Mohideen and little dynamo Jason Karunaratne were omnipresent in this outing. 

For the Lions, it was Dilusha Dange and Anuk Boyagoda who stood out. The Trinitians will need to hit back fast and strong against the Joes next Friday with a win, if not they will lose out on a league title which they have missed for the last three decades after a few near misses. 

Meanwhile, in the Plate segment both Dharmaraja College and St. Anthony’s College emerged victorious. The Rajans beat Kingswood while the Antonians easily got past Vidyartha College.  

Rajans end Kingswood’s unbeaten run

Dharmaraja College put a stop to Kingswood College’s unbeaten run during the Singer League Under-20 Plate encounter where they got the better of their traditional rivals 53-32 in Nittawela over the weekend. 

The Rajans led 31-22 at halftime. 

In another Plate encounter St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota outclassed Vidyartha College 62-28 at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium after leading 22-21 at halftime. There are four schools competing in the Plate segment, namely Dharmaraja College, Kingswood College, St. Anthony’s College and Vidyartha College while Trinity College is the only team in the Cup competition.