Peterite-Isipatana in grudge battle

Chris DHAMBARAGE

The Singer inter-school Under 20 Division One League tournament will reach its climax when the reigning champions St. Peter’s College take on Isipatana College in a key fixture at Bambalapitiya on June 11 (Saturday).

Both teams are in contention for the richest prize in the schools rugby scene this season along with the table leaders and the unbeaten Royal College team. St. Peter’s and Isipatana have the identical record in the tournament with seven victories from eight outings.

The Peterites suffered their only defeat this year against Trinity College Kandy (10-34) on their home grounds while Isipatana went down fighting 11-10 against Royal.

Despite the two defeats both St. Peter’s and Isipatana have made steady progress and have kept their hopes alive of winning the league championship. In fact both teams will take the field with confidence having recorded victories in their previous outings.

Isipatana of course had the satisfaction of overcoming Trinity College Kandy 23-18 at the Pallekele Stadium while St. Peter’s College recorded a huge 59-7 triumph against S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia.

The Peterites have scored the most number of tries in the tournament 57 and 27 conversions with a tally of 359 points to their credit. This is mainly because they have been able to register some big victories in the tournament.

In fact they started off with a bang defeating Science College (48-7), Thurstan (61-6), Dharmaraja (54-5) Wesley (62-7) and St. Anthony’s (42-10). After their shock defeat against Trinity, the Peterites again recovered to beat their traditional rivals St. Joseph’s (23-17) and S. Thomas’ (59-7).

In contrast Isipatana had a quiet start to their campaign where they defeated Dharamaraja (37-15) and St. Anthony’s (31-3) before losing to Royal by a solitary point 10-11.

However Isipatana bounced back in style and continued with their winning ways while overcoming Science College (23-17), St. Joseph’s (29-23), Wesley (46-3), S. Thomas’ (77-3) and Trinity (23-18).

Meanwhile Wesley College will be looking to register their second win for the season when they take on Thurstan College in another Singer Division One League tournament match at Longden Place on Saturday.

In addition Science College will travel up to Kandy for the second successive week to play against St. Anthony’s College at the Nittawela Stadium while Dharmaraja College will meet St. Joseph’s College at the Bogambara Stadium with both matches on Saturday.