Will take on Wesley in President’s Trophy final on July 14 :

Trinity in superb fight-back to beat Peterites by 40-37

Thushan Jayasuriya

Trinity College Kandy staged a superb fight-back to beat the formidable St.Peter’s College Colombo by 40 points (four goals, three penalties and a drop goal) to 37 ( three goals, two tries, two penalties) in a thrilling semi final of the Milo inter-schoools knock out rugby tournament for the President’s Trophy worked off at Royal College Sports Complex after trailing by 20 - 23 at lemons.

St.Peter’s College skipper Shan Weerakkody tries to break free from the clutches of a Trinity defender in their Milo president’s trophy semi final played at Royal Sports Complex yesterday which Trinity won 40 - 37.

The game was a scintillating battle from the beginning. The Peterites opened scoring in the fourth minute with a 20 metre penalty by Jerome Canute.A few minutes later Trinity made a bold reply with a drop goal booted by Fly Half Tharinda Ratwatte to make it 3 all.

Canute booted his second penalty from 20 metres for St.Peter’s College in the 13th minute. The lads from Kandy scored their first try in the 15th minute through Winger Lakvin Gunasekara by the left corner flag with Ratwatte converting it from a difficult angle to make it 10 - 06 in favour of Trinity.

The lads from Bambalapitiya hit back in the 20th minute when hooker Shenal Abeysekara scored a try by the corner flag with Canute missing the conversion and Peterites led 11 - 10.

This ding-dong battle continued till the end of the first half.

Before the breather Ratwatte put over a penalty for the Trinitians in the 24 th minute and he scored a try in the 26th minute with Naresh Perera adding the extra points.And Trinity led 20 - 11

Then Peterite Dilanka Perera scored a fine try with Canute missing the conversion to make it 20 - 16 in favour of Trinity. Just before the breather the Peterites grabbed the lead when Full Back Kevin Dickson scored by the right corner flag. Jerome Canute made a splendid conversion to give the Peterites a 23 - 20 lead at lemons.

Soon after resumption, the Trinitians equalized when Tharinda Ratwatte made no mistake with a 40 metre penalty.

Then came the Peterites dominance when they scored two successive tries through Centre Anuradha Herath and Full Back Kevin Dickson with Jerome Canute adding the extra points to both tries and the Peterites were sitting pretty with a 37 - 26 lead with Ratwatte putting over 25 metre penalty in between the Peterite tries.

Peterite Malith Magage sends out a pass to a team mate with Trinity skipper Halique Wadood making a desperate bid to foil him in the semi final of the Milo knockout tournament played at Royal Sports Complex which Trinity won 40 - 37. Pictures by Rukmal Gamage

Eleven minutes before the final whistle came Trinity’s fightback went off a 25 metre scrum Fly Half Tharinda Ratwatte dummied his way to score under the post and converted it himself (Peterites 37 - 33).

In the 37th minute, Trinity were rewarded for their determination when off a three quarter move in the Peterite “25”. Centre Shehan Perera collected a long pass and scored by the left corner flag.

Tharinda Ratwatte made splendid conversion to give Trinity the lead at 40 - 37. In the last minute of the game, the Peterites were awarded a 25 metre penalty. But instead of taking the kick, they took a short tap but could not penetrate the Trinity defence and at the final whistle Trinity ran out winners by 40 - 37.

Priyantha Gunaratne refereed They will now meet Giant killers Wesley College who beat ‘A’ division league champions Dharmaraja in the other semi final by 22 - 13 in the final on July 14, Sunday at the Royal Sports Complex. Incidentally, the Wesleyites finished fourth in the schools ‘A’ division league.