Rev. Fr. Basil Wiratunga Shield Rugby:

Petes out to maintain supremacy

Chris DHAMBARAGE

St. Peter's College will be hoping to retain the Rev. Fr. Basil Wiratunga Memorial Shield for another year when they take on the traditional rivals St. Joseph's College in their 41st annual inter school Battle of the Saints rugby encounter which will be worked off at the CR and FC ground in Longden Place today.

The Peterites have dominated the series for more than a decade and on present form they look well set to pull off another convincing victory. But more importantly they would like to get back into the winning formula after their shock 10-34 defeat at the hands of Trinity College in their previous outing.

In contrast St. Joseph's College will take the field while brimming with confidence after having defeated the more fancied Kingswood College team by 30 points to 10 points in their previous encounter.

However the Josephians will start the match sans their regular captain, playmaker and dynamic number eight Malintha Zoysa who has been ruled out of the entire season following a forearm fracture which he sustained during the match against Wesley College.

This is a tremendous blow for the Joes who are really determined to create an upset following their success in the ongoing Singer inter school Division One League Championship.

The match is also a significant one for St. Peter's College who desperately need to win if they are to keep their hopes alive of retaining the Singer Division One League title for the second successive year.

Last week of course their unbeaten tag in the current season was shattered after they crashed to a stunning defeat against Trinity College Kandy on their home ground in Bambalapitiya.

This time however they will be looking to produce an improved performance and to maintain their impressive record in the series between the two schools. In fact St. Peter's College have built up a huge lead in the Big Match series with 28 wins against their opponent's eight victories.

As a result the odds will be heavily against St. Joseph's College who had the satisfaction of defeating St. Peter's College way back in 1999 under the captaincy of Laksitha Guneratne.

Apart from that St. Peter's College have looked almost invincible and also won last year's encounter by a handsome margin of 55 nil under the leadership of Keith Gurusinghe.

The Peterites also created a piece of history by notching up the biggest victory in the series where they pulled off a massive 101-5 victory against St. Joseph's College in 2007 under Ranuka Jayasinghe.

Even then St. Joseph's College have had their moment of success occasionally and were able to draw the match in the year 1969, 1980, 1992 and 2004.

The Joe - Pete rugby encounter dates back to 1955 in which year rugby was introduced to the Darley Road School. The inaugural encounter was won by St. Peter's College.

The Basil Wiratunga shield was introduced in 1968 and St Joseph's won it in the inaugural year under Shiraz Fernando.

The teams:

St. Peter's College: Chaturanga Mendis, Johan Rodrigo, Devin Fonseka, Asitha Krishan, Jehan Mendis, Malith Makage, Ravindra Indrakumara, Isuru Alwis, Rizwan Meedin and Dulaj Perera, Danushka Ranjan, Bhanuka Nanayakkara

(captain), Sandun Herath, Bhanuka Peiris, Kevin Wimaladasa.

St. Joseph's College: Yohan Keyser, Dushan Dep (captain), Darren Hakel,

Praveen Nivantha, Malshan Salgado, Chirath Peiris, Darren Dharmadasa, Nuwan

Wanniarachchi, Piyum Jayasinghe and Godfrey White, Chamod Umeshanka,

Kaveesha Mihiranga, Dhanushka Jayasekera, Vishmitha Peiris, Dileep Rehan.