Peterites - a force to be reckoned with

Chris DHAMBARAGE

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St. Peter's College Rugby Pool for 2009 :

PROP FORWARDS: Steve Nelson, Johanne Anderson, Isuru Alws

HOOKER: Shalin Mendis, Dinuk Fonseka

SECOND ROWERS: Soyuru Anthony, Chatura Cabral, G. Anthony, M. Alex

FLANKERS: Lee Keegal, Chamath Krishan, Asitha Ratnayake, Arun Kumar

NUMBER EIGHT: Shenal Dias

SCRUM HALF: Bhanuka Nanayakkara, Rizwan Meedin, Ruchira Kumara

FLY HALF: Anisha Fernando CENTRES: Keith Gunaratne, Dilshan Paul (captain)

WINGERS: Lakith Perera, Danushka Ranjan, Dennis Perera, Srinath Perera, Gazalli Ifthikar

FULL BACK: Dishan Gunaratne (vice captain), Kevin Wimaladasa

HEAD COACH: Sanath Martis

ASSISTANT COACH: Colin Denish

TRAINER: Anoja Mallikarachchi, Sunimal Manamperi.

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The fixtures:

May 2 v Dharmaraja at Bambalapitiya

May 9 v Isipatana at Bambalapitiya

May 16 v Royal at Bambalapitiya

May 23 v Trinity at Bambalapitiya

June 6 v St. Josephs at Reid Avenue

June 13 v St. Anthonys at Bambalapitiya

June 20 v Kingswood at Bambalapitiya

June 27 v S. Thomas at Bambalapitiya

July 4 v Mahanama at Bambalapitiya

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Former league champions St. Peter's College with a combination of youth and experience are hoping to build up their team during the current inter school rugby season which kicks off this weekend. The Peterites have lost many of their top players who performed successfully during the last two years and have been forced to look into some replacements. They will begin the new season with a key match against Dharmaraja College Kandy on May 2 on their home grounds at Bambalapitiya.

St. Peter's College have been preparing for the new season since October last year with a series of indoor practice sessions in addition to the weights and conditioning training under the guidance of two specialized trainers Anoja Mallikarachchi and Sunimal Manamperi. From January this year onwards they turned their focus purely on the game and started working on different tactics and their game plan with Head Coach Sanath Martis assisted by Colin Denish a distinguished oldboy of St. Peters College.

Their preparations also included a gruelling five day training camp in Diyatalawa followed by the traditional match against the St. Peters College oldboys team and another friendly encounter against Wesley College. The Peterites will no doubt feel the absence of dynamic wing three quarter Gazalli Ifthikar who is still recovering from an injury but is expected to join the squad mid way during the season.

The other key players in the side are skipper Dilshan Paul, number eight Shenal Dias, centre Keith Gunaratne, prop forward Steve Nelson and vice captain Dishan Gunaratne who played a dominant role during the previous season where they were placed third in the league championship.

In fact St. Peters College had a great season last year while recording a couple of memorable victories in the league and went on to win the Presidents Trophy knock out tournament.

They even came closer to retaining the league title for the second successive year but two shock defeats at the hands of S. Thomas College (19-22) at Mount Lavinia and Royal College (12-17) at Reid Avenue certainly put them on the defensive.

Even then St. Peters College could look back at last year's performances with great satisfaction because they were able to beat the ultimate A division league champions Kingswood College, Kandy (15-7) on their home grounds at Bambalapitiya and also had the better of Trinity College Kandy (15-10) at the Pallekelle Stadium in one of the biggest upsets last year. Another significant fact in their performances was that they were able to collect an aggregate of 205 points the highest by a team in the league tournament from their eight outings including 29 tries.

This season of course St. Peter's College are badly hit by the absence of some of their regular players but are hoping to create at least a couple of major surprises. Their major concern is the set of forwards which looks rather inexperiences except for prop forward Steve Nelson and number eight Shenal Dias who is also the captain of the Sri Lanka Schools basketball team.

This year St. Peter's College will play a total of nine matches including their annual encounter against the traditional rivals St. Josephs College.