Unbeaten St. Peter’s College led by skipper Ashain Madugaspe and coached Sanath Martis clinched the 2023 Inter-School Under-20 ‘A’ Division Dialog League rugby title when they defeated arch-rivals and defending champions Isipathana College by 28 points (4 tries, 1 conversion, 2 penalties) to 17 (2 tries, 2 conversion, 1 penalty) at Bambalapitiya yesterday.
At half time the score read 15-10 in favour of the Peterites whose style of play in both attack and defence gave Isipathana no chance in the match as they were tackled to almost a standstill.
In addition, the Peterites won the League after 13 years and in the process shattered Isipathana’s chances of retaining the ‘A’ Division League title for the second successive year.
The Isipathana lads were under tremendous pressure in the beginning as they conceded an early try to their opponents and trailed 3-15 at one stage after just 33 minutes of play.
Peterite cricketer turned scrum half Shalith Gallage was outstanding from the base with his safe ball handling and collection and fed his speedy three quarter line every time he received the ball.
In fact, St. Peter’s drew first blood in the fifth minute with a superb try from speedy inside centre Yumeth Shihara who powered his way to touch down after the threes had worked their way to gain a great amount of territorial advantage. He himself converted to give Peters a 7-0 lead. Isipathana cut down the lead to 3-7 with a penalty put over by winger Rinesh Silva in the 11th minute of play.
Then Peterite number eight Dulaj Navodya barged over for a try from a line out in the 20th minute of the game. Yumeth converted the try to increase their score to 12-3 and Yumeth later put over another penalty to make the scores 15-3.
In the 34th minute just before the stroke of half time Isipathana winger Rinesh Silva scored off a three quarter move to close the gap to 10-15 as he also converted the try.
After the resumption of play in the 42nd minute St .Peter’s speedy winger Dineth Ranasinghe scored a fabulous try which Yumeth could not convert. The score read St. Peter’s 20 to Isipathana 10.
Soon after, Isipathana scored in the 54th minute through their reserve prop forward Dhameru Rajapakse and Rinesh made the conversion to cut down the lead to 17-20. But the gallant St. Peter’s College put the game to bed with an unconverted try in the 58th minute by fullback Kushan Tharindu who also put over a penalty with eight minutes left.
Referee: Ishanka Abayakoon