Isipathana, St Peter’s lock horns for knockout glory
Isipathana and St Peter’s will lock horns in the second semi-final of the Milo U20 inter-schools rugby knockout tournament scheduled to be kicked off today at Sugathadasa Stadium from 4.15 p.m. onwards.
The match is no doubt going to be a blockbuster as the two teams will be confronting each other for the second time this season with the Peterites having won the first game with ease 32-15 and will look to make a repeat of that performance while Isipathana who ended as the runner up in the league tournament that ended will be seeking to avenge that defeat.
The two teams come into the game with contrasting wins with St Peter’s having secured a comfortable 38- 24 win over Trinity whom they defeated for the second successive time and Isipathana on the other hand recording a hard fought 29-28 win against St Anthony’s.
But even then there is no favourites in this game and the Peterites led by full back Diyath Fernando has a job in his hand and will be under pressure to keep up the momentum against the gritty Isipathanians led by centre Sumudu Rankothge.
However the Peterites will be coming into the game with a load of confidence and when you look they have been at their best against tough teams even though they were a bit shaky and inconsistent in the league championship.
Isipathana too underwent some anxious moments during the league championship but they managed to end up as the second best team piping Trinity to the third slot. The Pathanas overall performance is not satisfactory.
Peterite skipper’s trump card is no doubt is going to be their centre Theekshana Dissanayake who has been in the forefront in the proceedings of all their matches up to date and he will be depend on another star players such as -- fly half Stephan S ivaraj, scrum half Jason Karunaratne, prop forward Faiz Abdulla and wingers Ravin Fernando and Marc Assuwf.
Isipathana skipper on the other too has a host of players on who he will be expecting to deliver – such as -- scrum half Harith Bandara who scored the winning try in the previous mat ch, winger Chamod Fer nando, number 8 Devin Gunaratne who unfortunately has not been at his best, fly half Randy Silva, full back Dileeka Hettiarachchi, winger Nadeesha Chaminda, centre Manilka Sulakshana and second row Ravindu Anjula to name a few.
So looking at the performances of the two teams in the recent past the scale is a bit in favour of the Peterites who has been in top form as they showed their win against Trinity which they proved it that the first win was not a flash in the pan.
In conclusion the Peterites should not be over confident as the Pathanas are well known for their die hard approach and there is no doubt as mentioned earlier the game is going to be a blockbuster and predicting the final outcome is not going to that easy.