Trinity College Kandy battled the schools league’s bests, St. Peter’s College, at Bambalapitya this evening. Nothing beats the rugby atmosphere you experience as you enter St. Peter’s College grounds at a rugby match.
A buzz of activity, cheer from the college supporters and college prefects guidance, portrays a charged disposition.
The kick-off started a much awaited battle between two legends in the school arena representing Kandy and Colombo. Along with this mammoth anticipation factor, Trinity College was facing much pressure from the Peterites not only for the fact that St. Peter’s is leading the tournament but also because it was played at St. Peter’s grounds itself. Regardless of the large support contingent present, it was Trinity who took the lead by scoring the first try less than six minutes into the game. Taking over a strong defense No. 9 player of Trinity College N Perera broke through to the try line; however, it remained an unconverted try for Trinity Collegewith 5 points on the board.
Taking on the lead, the Kandy battalions held a strong position preventing Peter’s from scoring until T. Ratwatte of Trinity College scored a penalty making the overall score 8-0 in favor of the visitors.
St. Peter’s College, hungry for a try took the Kandy lads by surprise when B. D. M. Perera playing at No. 12 scored a try less than a minute from Ratwatte’s penalty. The conversion by C. Jerome settled the overall score to an 8-7 to the visitors.
Peter’s were satisfied tagging behind Trinity and this pressure is the finest explanation for the hard penalties which Peterites were gunning for. Yet it was Ratwatte of Trinity College who was the first to score the next penalty which was soon followed by C. Jerome for St. Peter’sCollege.
With fifteen minutes left for the half time, the Petes spectators not used to lagging behind were screaming for tries. As if the cheers fueled the opposing team, again it was Trinity who scored next. This was another unconverted try for Kandians by the No. 03 player. Startling the home support further, N. Perera of Trinity College once again raised the total by 5 points with another unconverted try.
The last five minutes before the half time was the most exciting period of the game with both teams scoring converted tries; which was also the first conversion for kickers of Trinity College who had been struggling thus far. Scoring these tries were S. M. Abesekara and A. Karuuatilake of St. Peter’s College and Trinity College respectively.
Moving on to the second half of the game the expectations from the St. Peter’s College were high with an overall score of 17, 11 points behind the Kandy warriors. At the start itself Petes scored through a penalty by C Jerome making it his third kick for today.
Since then both teams were struggling and the game was swinging in both directions. An interesting twist was experienced at the last 15 minutes of the game. The No. 15 player of Peter’s college missed a pass couple of feet away from the try line which Trinity skipper H. Wadood made the maximum use of and made it all the way to the opposing try line allowing Trinity College to score their final for the game by T. Ratwatte. The conversion of this try was by N. Perera who was also kicker for the next converted try by Trinity College.
Bringing the scores to 35-20 Trinity College sure proved to be the dominators in the match. Although only a couple of minutes the fans were still optimistic for a famous Petes comeback . The 5 points which was added to the score of Peter’s wasn’t enough to satisfy their goal. The match was concluded with 35 – 25 with the Kandy warriors changing the phase of St. Peter’s College.
