Royal-Peterite game pick of the matches

The confrontation between the only two unbeaten teams defending champions Royal College, Colombo and St Peter's College, Bambalapitiya on June 9 (Saturday) at the Royal Sports Complex is the pick of this week's matches of the Singer Segment One ‘A’ Division Rugby League Tournament.

In the other matches Isipatana will play host to St Anthony's, Kandy on June 8 (Friday) at Longden Place, Science College will lock horns with Vidyartha College on June 9 (Saturday) at Mount Lavinia, D S Senanayake will be the guests of St Joseph's College on June 9 (Saturday) at Longden Place while on the same day Trinity College will take on Kingswood College at Bogambara Stadium.

The Peterites who were bolstered by the return of skipper Danushka Ranjan staged a superb fight-back in the second half to beat the Antonians by 31 points to 22 after being led by the staggering margin of 22-5 by the Antonians at half time.

In Ruchira Perera and Dulaj Perera the lads from Bambalapitiya have a fine halves combination, Dulaj has caught the opponents defence napping with his daring breaks while centres skipper Danushka Ranjan, Imal Rushantha, winger Bhanuka Peiris and full back Kevin Dickson who joins the line to form the overlap are hard runners who should slice through the Royal defence.

The Royalists were given a scare by Kingswood who went down fighting 24-27 after Royal had led 27-5 till 15 minutes before the final whistle. Royal's lack of fitness and reluctance to tackle was exploited by Kingswood who scored three tries during the last 15 minutes. The experienced Royal forwards too failed to impress conceding a major share of possession to Kingswood especially in the line outs where they resorted to tapping the ball instead of a clean catch which resulted in the lads from Kandy retrieving possession.

The Royal ‘eight’ will have to give a much better display if they hope to emerge victorious. They too have a fine set of ‘threes’ – the experienced scrum half Ravishan Dassanayake, speedy wingers Ijaz Bohoran, Nimshan Jayawardena and utility player Rimzi Jamaldeen. The lads from Reid Avenue are likely to be strengthened with the likely return of skipper and fly half Arshard Jamaldeen and outstanding centre Damien Ratwatte (both of whom missed the last two matches due to injury).