St. Peter’s survives storm to down St. Anthony’s
The Peterites survived a bit of a storm but came through at the end to post a 21 points (3 goals) to 11 (1 try, 2 penalties) win over a fighting Anthonian outfit at Nittawela.
The match started shortly before 5.00pm as a result of a heavy shower. After a failed drop kick by an Anthonian, a Peterite defender was of not releasing the ball. The penalty was slotted over by fly half Kumara Maduwantha for an early lead.
The Peterites did a lot of tackling but came up short against a stout defence. After about 18 minutes, Peterite lock Rahal Delpechitra crashed through to touch down. Sivaraj Stephen converted to make it 7-3.
The Antonians kept fighting undeterred and attacked the goal line repeatedly. Off one such attempt, centre Dinuk Amarasinghe, who led the team in the absence of skipper Pasindu Dulshan, leapt over a couple of defenders and scored (8-7).
Maduwantha was on target with a simple penalty conversion and the Anthonians had enlarged the lead to 11-7 at half time.
The Peterites did more attacking in the opening half but their moves lacked finish. The Anthonians by contrast, attacked less, but when they did, they were sharp and they really stung.
Skipper Jayawickrema and Stephen missed penalties at the start of the second half. They were not particularly difficult conversions, but the wet ball may have had a hand in it.
The Peterites who had fallen behind went on the attack. They used the driving maul well. After a series of rucks, scrum half Avishka Heenpella was able to creep through a few defenders and go over. The skipper took the conversion and made a good job of it (14-11).
The Anthonian scrum half was dilly-dallying with the ball in his hands. An alert Heenpella grabbed the ball from him and sent it out. Fly half Stephen Sivaraj sold a neat dummy and went over. Skipper Jayawickrema obliged.
This win was not given on a platter. Credit to the Peterite forwards who did a great job stalling the Anthonian attacks. Fly half Maduwantha kicked intelligently and also gained good ground.
In the dying moments, a Peterite got the ball in his 22 and unleashed a seventy-five yard-run. He was stopped short by a desperate defender.
Referee – Aruna Rankothge.