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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Monday, 2 July 2018 00:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
St. Peter's with the Milo President's Trophy
By Shamseer Jaleel
Defending President’s Trophy Knockout champions St. Joseph’s College were edged out in a sensational thriller thanks to a second-half burst by St. Peter’s College who got the better of their traditional rivals 22-20 at the Race Course ground in a game played under floodlights last weekend.
At halftime the Joes led 17-5.
St. Joseph’s College dominated proceedings in the initial half of the battle. As usual it was their winger Tharindu de Alwis and Gemunu Chethiya who were in excellent form in this tournament plus during the grand finals. They crossed the line when they handed off the Peterites. Santhush Algama put over both the conversion plus a first-half penalty. The Peterites scored through their burly prop Julian Charles.
After the turnaround Algama put over the last penalty and score for the Joes to take a 20-5 lead. But that was it when the Peterites suddenly woke up in the game. The Peterites scored their second try through dashing winger Shenol Silva to reduce the deficit to 20-10.
Julian Charle’s second try pushed the game to a tense situation at 20-15. Kenneth Wimaladasa, who had a grand tournament with his boots, showed how fast he could run when he scored the winning try for the Bambalapitiya lads.
The Peterites regained the title after a lapse of nine years. In the end Joes’ Head Coach Nilfer Ibrahim had to be satisfied with second position both in the league as well in the President’s Trophy Knockout competition while veteran Sanath Martis returned the Bambalapitiya outfit to their winning ways. This was the first time in the history of the Milo President’s Trophy final that these schools locked horns. The game was refereed by Praneeth Weranga.
The Sri Lanka Sevens rugby outfit, which will be led by Sudarshana Muthuthanthri, will gain international experience when they travel to France in order to lay the foundation for the Asian Games in August this year.
Sri Lanka will participate in the Paris Games Sevens next weekend before having a training camp in Paris. The Sevens squad will leave for Paris tonight. The majority of the players are from Kandy SC and CH&FC.
Full squad: Sudarshana Muthuthanthri (Captain), Danushka Ranjan, Jason Dissanayake, Danushka Dayan, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Gayan Weeraratne (all from Kandy SC), Kavindu Perera, Tharinda Ratwatte (both from CR&FC), Sudam Sooriyarachchi, Naveen Henakankanamage, Nishon Perera (all from CH&FC), Adeesha Weeratunge and Buddhima Piyaratne (both from Navy SC) and Dinuk Amerasinghe (Havelock SC). The Head Coach is Peter Woods.(S.J)
