St Peter’s College ran rampant through a very shaky outfit from S Thomas’ College, as they racked up a massive win at the Havelock Sports Club Ground yesterday.
Going into the game, the expectation was that the Thomian pack would dominate proceedings in the game. They certainly got off to a flyer, executing a good maul to allow winger Kasun Jayasuriya to open the scoring for the Thomians within minutes of kick off, and giving them a 5 point lead.
It didn’t take the Peterites long to respond, and they did so in emphatic fashion, scoring back to back tries. The first was set up by a beautiful decoy by Avishka Ranasinghe, with Kevin Dexon then racing through the Thomian defence, before setting up Diyath Fernando for the try. Almost immediately afterwards, The Peterites took great advantage of a penalty, with Dexon going over the line himself this time. One successful conversion left the score at 12 -5 in favour of the visitors.
The Thomians strength was believed to be their forwards, but the lack of pace and flair in their line showed visibly. Their defense was slow, and their lateral movement poor. The flurry of tries by the Peterites had a visible impact on them, with a lot of technical errors being committed under pressure. Dexon in particular was causing no end of problems for the lads in blue and black, gaining yards of space in mere seconds. The Peterites were camped in Thomian territory for almost the entire half, and were rewarded with a penalty, before Diyath Fernando once again scored a great try, racing down half the length of the pitch before going over the line to score. A slight drizzle hampered the strong running play of the Peterites slightly, giving the Thomians some small respite, but at half time only one team looked like winning it.
Half Time STC 05 – 20 SPC
Much like in their previous game, the Thomians put on a much better show after the break, executing some strong mauls and pressuring the Peterite defense. The boys from Bambalapitiya got a little scrappy under the pressure, with Uditha Anjane and captain Sepal Aponso being sent to the sin bin in the second half. The Thomians were unable to take advantage of the man advantage, and it was in fact the Peterites who scored, capitalizing on some bad defense, with vice captain Nishon Perera scoring the try.
The Thomians finally managed to get up on the board once more, following some strong attacking play by the forwards, before winger Naveen Henakankanamage fell over the line to provide some relief for the Thomian supporters. A great conversion by Hans Walpola brought the Thomian tally up to 12, and brought some brief hope, but it was quickly extinguished by Dexon, who once again stormed through to score another try.
The Thomians seemed defeated with that try, and the Peterites were able to play as they pleased in the final quarter of the game, with both Dexon and Fernando comleting their hattrick of tries against a spent Thomian defence. The try was converted at the full time whistle, and the Peterites had completed a right royal thrashing.
Full Time STC 12 – 44 SPC
“We have a long way to go. I always say that rugger is about the basics and playing eighty minutes, and that’s we did, so full credit to the boys” – Collin Denish St. Peter’s College Coach
ThePapare Player of the match – Kevin Dixon
