A Dialog Schools Rugby League week 2 encounter took place today (22nd) at the Nittawela Rugby Grounds as the defending champions St. Peter’s College clashed against Kingswood College. After a scrappy display of rugby from both the sides, Peterites who did less mistakes on the day walked out with a comfortable 46-03 victory.
The match started with both teams knocking the ball forward inside the first minute, foreshadowing a very lackluster game for both sides. After missing out on a clear chance in the first 10 minutes, Salith Gallage finally went over the line in the 12th minute using the shorter side. Kingswood had to defend a lot leading up to that try and didn’t have enough gas, as defenders couldn’t place themselves quickly enough, which opened up the short side for Gallage. Rahul Peter missed the conversion, keeping the scoreboard the same (SPC 05 – 00 KCK).
Nine minutes later, the second try arrived for the visitors when Vihan Rusith produced an almost coast-to-coast scintillating run as he outran the home team defenders quite easily (SPC 10 – 00 KCK).
Going into the last 10 minutes of the first half, the Peterites scored a solid try thanks to Vishenka Silva’s mesmerizing run, followed by on-point support from skipper Dulaj Nawodya (SPC 15 – 00 KCK).
On the stroke of halftime, Ranithu Rithmal found the whitewash for the fourth time for the Peterites after Kingswood tried to form a maul just 5m away from their own try line and conceded a penalty for holding on. Gallage took it quickly and Rithmal finished the job as Peter kicked through his first successful conversion of the day (SPC 22 – 00 KCK)
Half-Time :- SPC 22 – 00 KCK
Just like in the first half, it took some time for the first scoring opportunity to arrive in the second half as both teams made a lot of handling errors. Silva, who scored 5 tries in week number 1, added to his tally in the 47th minute, scoring the 5th overall try of the game. The Peterites opted not to go for the conversion, denoting they wanted to score as many points as possible through tries (SPC 27 – 00 KCK).
A few minutes later, the Bamba Brigade was awarded a penalty try when a high tackle prevented Nawodya from touching the ball down, as it would have been a sure shot try. They showcased some slick passing from right to left and left to right to get close to the whitewash (SPC 34 – 00 KCK).
Rivin Baudaween added the only points of the game for the boys from Randles Hill when they received a penalty from kickable distance, and he obliged to the skipper’s call of going for the 3 points (SPC 34 – 03 KCK).
The penultimate try of the game was probably the best of the lot as replacement scrum-half Praneeth Silva produced a high-class run using the width of the field. The supporters then converted the direction of attack to the opposite direction, as the Kingswood defenders had no answer whatsoever, with Nawodya going over for the try with 3 supporting runners to his right (SPC 39 – 03 KCK).
Gallage laid the foundation for the final try of the game when he managed to pierce through the heart of the Kingswood defense. He just had to give one pass to his left as Silva dived over to further increase his tally of tries. Gallage converted the try as the referee signaled the end of the game (SPC 46 – 03 KCK).
Although St. Peter’s College walked away with the win in this fixture, they will be disappointed about all the handling errors they made throughout the game. One could wonder if it was against a better opponent, the result would have been a lot different. Kingswood College, on the other hand, have only themselves to blame as whenever they found momentum, they gave it away with cynical errors. The wet underfoot conditions didn’t help the cause for both teams, but they both had every chance to minimize the mistakes they made.
St. Peter’s College scrum-half Salith Gallage was awarded the NDB Bank Player of the Match for scoring a try and laying the groundwork for two other tries in this encounter, along with his.
Full Time : St. Peter’s College 46 (8T 3C) beat Kingswood College 03 (1P)
- NDB Bank Player of the Match : Salith Gallage (SPC)
Points Breakdown
St. Peter’s College : Salith Gallage 7 Points (1 Try, 1 Conversion), Vihan Rusith 5 Points (1 Try), Vishenka Silva 10 Points (2 Tries), Dulaj Nawodya 10 Points (2 Tries), Ranithu Rithmal 5 Points (1 Try), Rahul Peter 2 Points (1 Conversion)
Kingswood College : Rivin Baudaween 3 Points (1 Penalty)
 at the Nittawela Rugby Grounds as the defending champions St. Peter’s College clashed against Kingswood College.){kind=link}