Peterites down Trinity 25-13 to book semi-final slot in rugby knockouts

By A Special Sports Correspondent

League champions St. Peter’s College scored a hard-fought 25-13 win over Trinity in the third quarter-final of the inter-school President’s Trophy knockout tournament at Havelock Park on Sunday.

The winners collected their points through four tries, one conversion, and one penalty while Trinity responded with a try, a conversion, and two penalties. The key feature in the game was Trinity fighting to stay competitive throughout the game despite the Peterites having an edge during loose play.

Trinity put up a spirited fight in the first half and were trailing St. Peter’s by two points when the two teams went into halftime; the score reading 8-6.

But after the resumption, the Peterites ran down three tries to which the Trinitians had no answer. The tries for the winners in the second half came through Dineth Ranasinghe, Kushan Tharindu and fly half Vindya de Mel. Yumeth Shihara kicked the conversion and penalty for the Peterites during the match.

Trinity played a physical game in the second half and tried to rattle the Peterites, but the lads from Colombo produced a superb cover defence and thwarted those moves. But Trinity prop Tenuk Fernando broke the Peterite defence in the 59th minute of play when he crashed over for a try near the posts.

Trinity were forced to play with 14 men during the last ten minutes of the game when Shan Althaf was shown the yellow card for a late charge. He had a miserable game and was even responsible for two of the tries that the Peterites scored in the second half.

In the first quarter-final of the knockout tournament played on Friday, Zahira beat D.S. Senanayake by 15 points to 13 while on Saturday St. Joseph’s College thrashed St. Anthony’s College Katugastota by 57 points to nil in the second quarter-final of the tournament.