St. Peter’s halt Isipathana’s winning spree
St. Peter’s halted the high riding Isipathana’s winning spree as they held them to a thrilling 25 each draw in the Singer Under-20 Schools Rugby league tournament, in what could be termed as the best match of the on going school rugby season played at Longden Place yesterday.
Prop forward Gehan Fernando was the toast of the Peterites as his last minute under the post try to dash the hopes of the many supporters of Isipathana that had thronged to witness the match.
The Peterites stunned tournament favourites Isipathana, after recording their second draw of the season - Pic by Ranjith Perera
Moments before Gehan planted the try and the conversion booted over by Kevin Dixon the Peterites were trailing 18-25 and the long whistle was blown which saw the match ending in a nail biting draw.
At the breather Isipathana was having a healthy lead of 20-13 and in the second half they were restricted to just five points with St. Peter’s scoring 12. However the missed conversion of the five tries scored by Isipathana proved futile to them while St. Peter’s made up their points through a goal, three tries and a penalty.
Isipathana will have to blame themselves for their performance in the second half after having dominated the proceedings earlier on. Hats off to the Peterites who made a terrific come back and had their opponents under tremendous pressure.
It was St. Peter’s who drew first blood with the game just two minutes old through an unconverted try by winger Shallen Direkze but that was short-lived as Isipathana made it quits with a try posted by flanker R. Silva.
From there on it was a ding dong battle for most part of the game but St Peter’s surged ahead with another unconverted try scored by Kevin Dixon.
Isipathana got their act together and making sporadicmoves which had their opponents guessing. Three unconverted tries first by center A. Punchihewa and two by Gamindu Dissanayake saw Isipathana increase their lead before a penalty booted by Sandesh Jayawickrema for St. Peter’s saw the two sides change over with scores on 20-13 in favour of the Havelock Park boys.
The resumption saw the Peterites coming into the field with a different game plan as this time it was the other way about as they had the strong Isipathanians guessing.
The Peterites in fact dominated the proceedings for the major part of the second half and made the first scoring in the eighth minute with Kevin Dixon going over for his second try of the match enabling them decrease the lead to a two point’s deficit 18-20.
With the Peterites being in the territory of their opponents for most part but they lacked the vital finishing touches. But 29 minutes later Isipathana grabbed the opportunity they received with No 8 Omalka Gunaratne barging his way through for a left corner flag try.
With just two minutes left for the long whistle a crucial mistake by Isipathana in St. Peter’s territory saw one of the Peterites sprinting nearly 60 metres before handing over the ball to Gehan Fernando who crept through for an under the post try giving Kevin Dixon an easy kick at goal.
The outcome of this match has now thrown the tournament wide open where three teams Isipathana, Kingswood and Trinity in with a chance of laying their hands on the league title.
The coming week is going to be crucial for these three teams with Trinity hosting St. Peter’s at Pallekelle and Isipathana hosting Kingswood at Longden Place.
Referee – Dinka Peiris.