Scores read 27-all even after extra time:

Peterites beat Royal by five penalties to four in a shoot out

SAJEEWA JAYAKODY

St Peter’s College, Colombo beat Royal College, Colombo in a penalty shoot out by five penalties to four after the scores read 27-all even after extra time in the Milo President’s Trophy knockout quarter-final played at the Royal Sports Complex yesterday after Peterites led 22-12 at the breather.

The Peterites obtained their points from two goals, two tries and one penalty while Royal also scored two goals, two tries and one penalty.

The game turned out to be a thriller with Royal getting the equalizer three minutes before full time when skipper Rimzi Jamaldeen crashed through for a try by the corner flag but failed with the difficult conversion and the scores read 27-all at the final whistle.

The referee Charith Kodagoda decided to play extra time of 10 minutes each, which also failed to break the deadlock. Then he decided to award five penalties each to the two teams, which resulted in both teams putting over three penalties out of five. Referee Kodagoda then awarded two more penalties to the two teams which saw Peterites Pravin de Silva and Jerome Canute putting over both penalties while for Royal skipper Rimzi Jamaldeen fired across the first penalty but to the dismay of their supporters, centre Azman Khan failed to put over the second penalty and the Peterites entered the semi-final in the penalty shootout.

The Peterites opened scoring early in the game through No 8 Anuradha Herath, who scored by the corner flag. Jerome Canute made a fine conversion.

In the 20th minute, Number 8 Anuradha Herath joined the three-quarter move and scampered through for a try by the corner flag Canute missed the conversion and the score read 12-nil in favour of Peterites.

The Peterites went ahead further when Shenal Aponso scored a push over try by the corner flag Jerome Canute made a splendid conversion and the Peterites were sitting pretty at 19-0.

The Reid Avenue school reduced the deficit when sturdily built Shuayb Muthaliph crashed through for unconverted try to make it 19-5. But the Peterites went ahead further when Jerome Canute made no mistake with a 30-metre penalty and score read 22-5.

Soon after it, Royal skipper Rimzi Jamaldeen missed an easy 25-metre penalty but a few minutes later, Royal reduced the deficit when off a five-metre lineout hooker Shuaib Jabbar powered his way to score by the corner flag and Rimzi Jamaldeen made a fine conversion to make it 22-12 at ‘lemons’.

In the fifth minute after resumption, Royal’s Rimzi Jamaldeen reduced the deficit when he put over a 30-metre penalty to make it 22-15. But soon after this, the Peterites hit back when off a three-quarter move when Timothy Alles dashed through to fall over for an unconverted try by the corner flag and the score read 27-15 in favour of Peterites.

Then came Royal’s magnificient fightback. Sprearheaded by burly Shuaib Muthaliph, the Royal forwards - especially, Jabbar, Kaveen Perera, Dineth Karunaratne, Yasun Weerasooriya, and Manusha Abeykoon kept on hammering at the Peterites defence and referee Charith Kodagoda awarded a penalty try for three successive scrum collapses which was converted by Rimzi Jamaldeen to make it 27-22.

The lads from Reid Avenue, kept on their assault on the Peterite goal line and finally suceeded three minutes before the final whiste when skipper Rimzi Jamaldeen scored by the corner flag off a five-metre scrum but he failed with the difficult conversion and the scores read 27-all at the final whistle, which saw the game going into extra time and finally to a penalty shootout which resulted in the Peterites winning by five penalties to four and enter the semi-finals where they will meet Trinity College, Kandy on July 9 at the same venue.