Petes rally to down S. Thomas’
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The Thomians battled valiantly but were unable to halt the Peterite march. Pic by Ranjith Perera.
A furious second half fight back by St. Peter’s College, who looked lacklustre over extended periods of play, lifted them to a thrilling 36 (4 goals, 1 try, 1 penalty)- 24 (2 goals, 2 tries) victory over S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, giving them the Archibald Perera trophy, at the S. Thomas’ College grounds yesterday.
Despite ending up on the losing end of the tie, the Thomians played a gritty and fearless game, staggering their opponents with blistering runs and destructively cohesive play.
The Peterites though discovered their class late on, with Fullback Praveen De Silva, Scrum Half Dulaj Perera, Flanker Royston Jansen, Flanker Malith Magage and Three Quarter Kevin Dixon tearing over the try line for the Peterites. The offensive reply for S. Thomas’ College came through No. 8 Naheed Jainudeen and Fly Half Aarthif Jawarth, who both scored two tries. Up until the two sides came out for the second half, S. Thomas’ had been playing out of their skins, and had earned themselves a slender 19-17 lead.
In stark contrast, the Peterites had seemed trapped in a shell, devoid of all confidence. The Thomians opened the scoring through a Jainudeen unconverted try, before De Silva answered with a converted try of his own. Perera then planted over a penalty before Jawarth struck two body blows for the home side with goals of his own. Right before the break though, St. Peter’s made their uphill climb easier with a try from Magage which Perera converted.
From that point the game began to slide into the hands of St. Peter’s as they began piling sustained pressure on the Thomians’ 22.
The home team finally caved in when Jansen caught them napping off a quick tap, and touched down in the 11th minute of the second half, to make the score 24-19 in his side’s favour, after his try was converted.
The Thomians though were unwilling to concede the game on their home turf, and promptly fought back with a series of good attacking moves of their own, eventually winning a penalty, which Devin Jayasinghe was unable to convert.Fourteen minutes into the second half though, and their heads dropped in anguish as Perera, who had an outstanding game, scored a goal for his side.
The Thomians did make things competitive with an unconverted try of their own from Jainudeen, but Kevin Dixon swiftly silenced the large crowd by deftly darting over the line for a hard-fought victory.
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