Petes off to a fine start

Beat Rajans 46-0:

Chris Dhambarage

The reigning A division champions St. Peter's College launched their defence for the Singer inter school Under 20 league rugby title with a smashing 46 points to nil victory over Dharmaraja College Kandy in their curtain raiser match worked off at Bambalapitiya yesterday.

The Peterites playing like a true champion side made their intentions quite clear from the kick off and collected their points from four goals, three tries and one penalty having led 27 nil at half time.

St. Peter's College sealed the game in their favour even before the completion of the first half by running down four splendid tries within the first twenty minutes of play. They really went flat out during the early stages and made certain that the Rajans never had the chance of staging a comeback.

The Peterites of course had the opportunity of even notching up the fifty point mark but instead they decided to provide some exposure to the newcomers by making four changes during the last ten minutes of play. In fact one of the substitutes winger Rukshan Ferdinandesz made a fine impact during that brief period while sprinting nearly fifty metres to touch down under the post.

Even then by that time the damage had been done as the Rajans were under pressure making a desperate attempt to restrict the formidable Peterite set of forwards. The home side went ahead soon after the kick off following an obstruction which resulted in a penalty try awarded by referee Dilroy Fernando.

Fly half Harsha Weerakkody made cerrtain with the conversion and St. Peter's College were well on their way to a comfortable victory. They produced a ruthless performance from there onwards with the forwards and the three quarters forming an effective combination.

Winger Amila Fernando scored the first of his two tries few minutes later following a great piece of work initiated by their forwards. Scrum half Gazalli Ifthikar punted beautifully and Fernando powered his way to touch down near the corner flag.

This was followed by another superb try from their second row forward Shenal Dias barged over on the blind side after the entire pack had supported him.

Winger Gerard Canute then produced another fine piece of work to score another try which was followed by a penalty conversion from Harsha Weerakkody. In the second half the Rjans did well to contain the opposition and also came closer of scoring on a couple of occasions.

However the Peterites were smart in counter attacking as they added three more tries to their tally through Amila Fernando, Harsha Weerakkody and Rukshan Ferdinandesz.

Referee: Dilroy Fernando.