73rd St. Peter’s Vs Trinity College Annual Rugby Encounter
A story of seven decades was born on a rugby field back in 1933 set on a picturesque Bogambara in the ancient city of Kandy with Hantane Mountain overlooking from one end and the Colonial prison compound completing the backdrop for those comes to the middle for the huddle and challenge their opponents’ powers with the oval shaped ball.
It was between two schools, formed in Sri Lanka based on Christian faith during British Colonial rule. One as an Anglican Missionary in the hill capital named as Trinity College Kandy formed back in 1872 though its past history can be traced back to 1817. The other on Catholic values, formed in a suburb in Colombo’s sea side in Wellawatte bordering the Old Dutch canal back in 1922 as St. Joseph’s College south later named as St. Peter’s College in 1927.
Two Rugby teams representing these two institutes met for the first time where Peterites under J.E.F Pereira then as novices on their 2nd year in Schools Rugby received a harsh teaching by then superior masters of the game Trinity College when the Lions mauled them by 58 points to nothing at the Bogambara grounds; a record still stands tall as the highest winning margin of the series. St. Peter’s visited Bogambara once again in 1934 under Shirley Illesinghe to face Trinity lions and this time they managed to settle for a some what decent loss in the hands of high riding Trinitians with a score margin of 3-17.
The 3rd of the series of encounters, which is now an annual encounter on it’s 73rd match, returned to Colombo for the first time in 1935 when it was the time for the Peterites to host Trinitians in their newly acquired ground at the banks of Old Dutch canal. This ground, which stands at present is one of the if not the oldest school rugby playing venues in Sri Lanka, was acquired back in 1930, with that St. Peter’s College took much interest in developing outdoor sports skills among its students by introducing Cricket, Athletics and Rugger. In 1932 Rugby Football was introduced to College under the Rectorship of Fr. D.J Nicholas Perera. The school was fortunate enough at that time to have had a brilliant Rugger players and sportsman on the staff, Mr. Herbert Wittahatchy who took over in the same year as Prefect of Games cum Rugby Coach took painstaking interest to promote and uplift this novel game at College.
St. Peter’s under Fred Keller in 1935, did the unthinkable and achieved a historic feat by beating Trinity College by 6-0 and became unofficial joint schools rugby champions with Trinity College as Petes also beat Royal College but lost to Zahira College. This was in their 4th year of taking up this game where as Trinity, Royal and Zahira was playing this game for more than a decade. St. Peter’s without stopping from there continued their winning performance to 1936, where they produced their first ‘Invincible’ XV under legendary Archibald Perera. Archie in 1933 stepped out for St. Peter’s College after having learnt his rugby basics at Trinity College and went on to wear the blue white & gold jersey for four consecutive years with the year 1936 being his finest. This was the year Sri Lanka, back then called Ceylon witnessed Archie’s invincible side at its prime where they faced Club teams and won 5 matches which included the win against CH & FC at Racecourse Grounds and lost 4 and drew 1. When it came to school games St. Peter’s had a clean sweep by winning all with wins against Royal 16-3 at home, Zahira 12-7 at home and finally a nail biting win over Trinity 3-0 with a penalty put over by Archie during the last few minutes of the game. It is said in the annals of School Records ‘Of this team, George Keller, Archibald Perera and Stanley Livera went on to play in representative games – Keller for the Ceylonese in the All India Tournament, Archibald Perera captained the Ceylon Barbarians in the All India Tournament and Stanley Livera for All Ceylon.It was a great achievement for a Ceylonese to play representative Rugby as the game was dominated by white players during this era’
St. Peter’s College went on to beat Trinity College for five consecutive years from 1935-1939 which was a record then and later bettered by St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota. During this period and up until World War II, the Peterites dominated the head to head contests against both Trinity and Royal and in the process were able to grab the schools rugby championship for five years in a row. However St. Peter’s College and Grounds was taken over In 1942 for WWII for a British base, halting any Rugby progress until 1948. Though, in 1948, under the stewardship of M. Numan (former Peterite Rugby player) and Harold De Silva as the captain, Peterites regrouped, they found it hard to find their winning footings on the Rugby field as Trinity and Royal continued to play rugger without any hindrance to the game or to their institutions in spite of the war and mid 1950’s saw the emergence of many new schools rugby teams including St. Thomas’, St. Joseph’s, Wesley etc making the Schools Rugby more competitive.
Trinity College after loosing in 1941 at Bambalapitiya, went on to cast a hoodoo over Peterites for 44 years where boys from Bambalapitiya failed to score a single win during this period against the boys from the hills. It took some beating, moral shattering and heart breaking encounters to break this spell. Before Rajith Abeygoonewardena’s start studded Peterites stepped out at CR & FC in 1985, there had been many more nerve wrecking, hair raising games played by Peterites and Trinitians during this encounter. Petes finally broke the hoodoo in 1985 and since then this series tally has seen some twist. Trinity has won 14 games and lost 8 with 03 games ending in draws. In fact since 2000, during the last 12 encounters, St. Peter’s College enjoys a slight lead over Trinity with 06 wins and 02 draws against 04 losses.
In 2011, Trinity under Murad Ramzeen romped to a 34-10 win at Bambalapitiya against Petes led by Banuka Nanayakkara and ended retaining their League title hopes. 2012 St. Peter’s under stand in captain Dulaj Perea pulled off a stunning win over Trinity at Pallekelle with a 34-29 which was the solitary loss for Trinity during that season which also affected their League title. Interestingly, home advantage or home ground plays little role in this encounter, this is if one analyses the recent venues. In fact going by records St. Peter’s has a better chance of winning at Pallekelle and Trinity has better chance of winning at Bambalapitiya. St. Peter’s scored their last win at Bambalapitiya in 2007 and Trinity scored their last win at Pallekelle in 2004.
Coming in to this season, both St. Peters’ and Trinity are walking out tomorrow at Bambalapitiya with an unbeaten tag on their jersey where as the league is concerned. Trinity began the season with a last minute draw against Rajans at Pallekelle and then went on to beat giant killers Science College and then home town rivals Kingswood. St. Peter’s on the other hand enjoys a better record with handsome wins over St. Anthony’s, St. Joseph’s and Royal College. However the Lions had the misfortune of eating a humble pie at Havelocks SC during the last weekend when St. Thomas’ who are spending their 2nd season at B Group scored a 29-15 win over fancied Trinitians during their annual Cannon De Saram trophy match. This has no effect on their League hopes though it would have made a dent on their Lion Pride. Same time it’ll give plenty of reasons for a wounded Lion to bounce back and Peterites who are coming after three weeks lay off will need to focus on their mission to keep the Lions at the bay or pay the price if they continues with their error filled style of play which they dished out during their last game which was an win over Royal at Bambalapitya.
Will the history repeat it self on this Saturday or can Peterites under Shan Weerakkody bring down the wounded Lions under Wadood to head the points table?
