Battered Trinity run into red-hot Petes
Having beaten by their traditional rivals Royal College last weekend, Trinity College makes the long journey down to Colombo as they face the table toppers St. Peter’s College in their Inter-schools Under-19 League Rugby Tournament match at Bambalapitiya today.
Trinity who had lost a couple of games in the first-round are certainly out of the race from the League title and at the start of the second-round, it appeared that the Bradby Shield was their utmost priority. However, with Royal having all probably sealed the 75th Bradby Shield bringing home a 17-point lead for the second-leg, Trinity would be eager to clinch the General Deshamanya Denis Perera Trophy by beating the Petes. Trinity actually played decently for most part of the game and in fact took a surprising lead thanks to a cracking try from centre Harsha Samarasinghe but Royal were too good in the last 20 minutes or so.
Trinity’s flanker Dhiren Ratwatte too had a good game against Royal while scoring a try in the first half but today they would be up against another strong set of forwards.
However, Ratwatte has been ruled out for this game due to an injury while another key player for Trinity, winger Geeshapa Kulatunga will be on the bench.
St. Peter’s on the other hand are holding on to a provisional lead with St. Joseph’s who are the only unbeaten team in the competition. However, St. Peter’s would be determined to get one over Reshan Bandaranayake’s team as they have a terrible head-tohead record against the Kandy side. Bilal Hilmy’s Peterites have a well balanced squad after a long time and it would be fair to say their forwards and backs have combined well in getting them victories. In fact, the boys from Bambalapitiya have won five games in a row after their shock defeat to S. Thomas’ College on the opening day of the tournament.