St. Peter’s College withstood a powerful second half rally from Royal College to run out deserving 11-5 winners in a closely contested Dialog Schools Rugby League match at Bambalapitiya yesterday.
The final scoreline failed to reflect the dominant performance of St. Peter’s who enjoyed a wafer-thin 3-0 lead in the first half.
They virtually pinned Royal in their half with the kick-off setting the tempo of the match with their three-quarters running with the ball at every given opportunity. In fact Royal came into the Peterite 22 briefly only twice in the first half.
A thin drizzle before the start of the game may have contributed to the sloppy ball handling and erratic passing at the beginning from both sides.
But Royal’s backs seemed to get cold feet whenever they had the ball in hand gifting possession away with some aimless play whereas the Peterite three-quarters showed more enterprise.
St. Peter’s centre Umesh Shihara was outstanding exposing the vulnerability of the Royal defence with a piercing run. He put the hosts ahead 3-0 in the 24th minute by slotting home a straight forward penalty kick.
Royal attempted the driving maul without much success in the first half. However, centre Philip Calyaneratne produced two dazzling runs in the match. He produced a scything run for 40 metres soon after St. Peter’s took the lead before being bundled into touch inside the 22. In the second half he made another lovely break before giving out a pass with one man to beat just minutes after Royal had taken the lead.
Royal were hustled in the scrums and failed to hold their own in the line-outs on occasions but finally got their act together after the interval. A Peterite flanker was yellow carded for punching after Royal attacked relentlessly with their forwards. Royal breached the Peterite defence with their forwards driving over from a line-out with their famed rolling maul to score and full back Nabil Yahiya was just awry with the conversion as Royal led 5-3 ten minutes into the second half.
St. Peter’s survived the Royal onslaught thereafter by pouncing on errors to regain the lead 6-5 with a successful penalty by Umesh Shihara with about ten minutes remaining.
But the issue was settled once and for all in the final minute of play when Peterite Sudesh Jayawickrema picked up a loose ball 20 metres away from the line to race down and score that made the scores 11-5 in favour of the home team following a defensive blunder by the back-peddling Royalists in the dying seconds of the game.
Referee Ishanka Abeykoon