St.Peter’s College put up an exceptional performance this evening against unbeaten Trinity College to retain the Deshamanya Dennis Perera Trophy for the third consecutive year by defeating the lions 15(2T, 1C, 1P) points to 13 (2T, 1P) and thereby ending the Trinitian unbeaten run of this season. This loss by the lions will open up the Singer School’s rugby league.
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Lashan Wijesuriya kicked off the game at Bambalapitiya under perfect conditions. The first quarter of the game was full of handling errors as both teams made more than 12 errors during that period. Trinity received a penalty as the Peterite forwards were penalized when they intentionally collapsed the scrum. Wijesuriya was spot on with his kick and opened the scoring for Trinity College. (SPC 00-03 TCK)
St.Peter’s College gifted a try to Trinity College few minutes later as Anuka Boyagoda made a quick decision to kick a grabber kick near the 5 meter line and Stephan Sivaraj made an effort to kick the ball to the dead line but he missed it and Amit Kulathilake collected the ball and touched it down to score the first try of the game for Trinity. Wijesuriya missed the difficult conversion.
Just before half time the Peterites were awarded a penalty when Keshwa Palayangoda didn’t release the ball from the ruck. Sivaraj made a perfect kick which bisected the uprights to reduce the gap to 5 points. (SPC 03-08 TCK)
Half Time – St.Peter’s (1P) 03 – 08 (1T, 1P) Trinity
St.Peter’s College looked a different side from the first half as they were determined to reduce the mistakes and to do the basics correctly on the other side Trinity were under pressure and they were panicking for the first time this season. Peterite flanker Umar Mohideen kicked the ball from the Trinity scrum when the ball was out and the Trinity scrum half Boyagoda couldn’t collect the ball as Mohideen was quick to make the important kick. Trinity winger collected the ball near St. Peter’s try line and was tackled quickly by the Peterites and the makeshift flanker Jason Karunarathna made a massive turnover and scored the first try for the Petes. Sivaraj’s conversion took the Peterites to the lead for the first time in the game. (SPC 10-08 TCK)
Soon after the try Peterites again was attacking the Trinity defence and more handling errors came from the lions. St.Peter’s No 08 Angelo Mendis made a trademark No 08 break and offloaded it to his scrum half Dilshan Madushanka. Madushanka made an easy pass to the nippy Ravin Fernando, who played this game at the wing not at his usual scrum half position, to score the all-important try for his team. Sivaraj was unable to increase the lead with his kick. (SPC 15-08 TCK)
Soon after the try Trinity attacked the Peterite defence as they needed to score twice to win this game. Peterite scrum half Madushanka and Trinity centre Dilusha Dange both made efforts to collect Boyagoda’s chip kick but both players collided and the ball was then collected by Woren Weerakoon and he touched down for the lions. Referee Dinka Pieris referred this decision to television match official (TMO) Vimal perera. Replays suggested that Madushanka was making an effort to collect the ball and he was in the air when the Trinity centre Dange collided and he didn’t make an effort to collect the ball. TMO instructed referee Pieris to award a penalty for the Peterites.
Soon after this incident Trinity again made strides to score and Petes were deemed offside by referee Pieris and the Trinity fly half Akitha Sakalasuriya took a quick tap and powered through 3 Peterite defenders to score for the lions. Trinity College couldn’t convert this try. (SPC 15-13 TCK)
Trinity College tried to score again but handling mistakes and superb defence by the Peterites ensured the game ended in favour of the Bamba Brigade.
Full Time – St.Peter’s (2T, 1C, 1P) 15 – 13 (2T, 1P) Trinity
ThePapare player of the match – Jason Karunarathna (St.Peter’s College)
Match referee – Dinka Pieris
ThePapare player of the match Jason Karunarathna expressed his elation following the win, “I am very happy with our performance today, we were down after the defeats against Joes and the Rajans but we gave our best today and I’m very happy about the result”
The score breakdown
St.Peter’s College 15 (03) 2T, 1C, 1P
Tries: Jason Karunarathna, Ravin Fernando
Conversion: Stephan Sivaraj
Penalty: Stephan SivarajTrinity College 13 (08) 2T, 1P
Tries: Amit Kulathilake, Akitha Sakalasuriya
Penalty: Lashan Wijesuriya
 points to 13 (2T, 1P) this evening in closely contested game.){kind=link}