Peterites made to sweat by gritty Wesley
A Peterite goes over to touch down against the gritty Wesley defenders - Pic by Akila Jayawardena
Defending champions St. Peter’s College underwent some anxious moments as they huffed and puffed as they struggled to prevail over Wesley College by 25-10 to chalk up their third successive win of the Dialog Schools Rugby League played at Bambalapitiya yesterday.
The Peterites were given a torrid time by the Wesleyites who kept them at bay for the home team to hold on to a slender 12-10 lead at the breather whilst accumulating their points through a five tries, a conversions and a penalty while the Wesleyites made up their points through two tries.
The final score does not indicate the performance of the gritty double blues but in the end they had to surrender due to the home team who was not at the best that was expected from them.
The Wesleyites pulled off a surprise, as they made the first scoring in the tenth minute from an unconverted try scored by flanker Nahan Hemachandra but that was short-lived as the Bamba Brigade went into the lead four minutes later with their playmaker and full back Pasindu Bandara going for a try and centre Yumeth Shihara adding the extra points.
Wesley, undeterred, went into the attack and had their opponent’s defence under pressure and they succeeded with a try scored by winger Mohamed Fawaz but the conversion was kicked astray as Wesley took over the lead 10-7.
The two sides shared honours in every aspect of the game before St. Peter’s managed to breach the Wesley defence in the 34th minute with skipper and No.8 Dulaj Navodya going over for an unconverted try down the left corner before the hosts held on to a slender 12-10 lead at lemons.
On resumption the Peterites had an opportunity to surge ahead but a kickable penalty offered in the third minute was fluffed. Poor ball handling of the experienced defending champions was one of their weaknesses and from there on it was a closely fought contest as it took another 15 minutes for the scoring to be done with fly half Vishenka Silva going over for an unconverted try.
The Wesleyites though succeeding to keep up the momentum and to put the home under pressure with their cohesive moves, what they lacked was the finish as they threw away many scoring opportunities.
St. Peter’s, on the other hand, took advantage of the opportunities that they got and succeeded to increase the lead in the 23rd minute from another unconverted try scored by centre Yumeth Shihara. This followed by Yumeth Shihara booting over a penalty that was offered for the Peterites to lead 25-10.
The Wesleyites, being unable to make any headway during this session, and with time running out and the two teams sharing honours sans scoring, saw the Peterites prevail with a hard fought 25-10 victory when referee Raveen Alexander blew the long whistle.