25 June 2018 06:13 pm
The Peterites also qualified to meet their traditional rivals St. Joseph’s College in the final scheduled to be played on June 30 at the Racecourse Grounds in Reid Avenue.
The Peterites having held on to a slender three point lead (10-7) at half time accumulated their points through two goals and three penalties as against to a goal and two penalties scored by Wesley.
The Peterites made the first scoring with the game two minutes old through a penalty booted by fly half Kenneth Wimaladasa.
Wesley’s efforts were rewarded when full back and playmaker Mursheed Zubair scored and he also added the extra points.
Few minutes later, Peterite winger Shenal Silva went over and Kenneth Wimaladasa added the extras.
After the turnaround the Peterites succeeded in scoring a try through number eight Abdullah Faiz.
Wimaladasa made no mistake with the conversion and they led 17-7 at that stage.
Thereafter, Tharindu Walpita put over two penalties for Wesley and Wimaladasa fired across a penalty for St. Peter’s who emerged victorious 23-13 in the end.
St. Joseph’s powers into President’s Trophy final
St. Joseph’s College produced a superb second half rally to beat Kingswood College 23-10 in their Milo Schools President’s Trophy Knock-Out Rugby Tournament first semi-final encounter worked off at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Saturday (23).
The defending champions who were trailing 9-10 at half time came back magnificently with a good second half performance as they collected their points from two goals and three penalties.
The Kingswoodians after a great start to the game simply threw away their chances with a disappointing display in the second half as they responded with two unconverted tries.
In fact, Kingswood could not add any points to their tally in the second quarter in contrast to their opponents who managed to turn the game in their favour with two splendid tries.
Even then, the Josephians were under tremendous pressure in the beginning after Kingswood threatened to take control of the game while scoring early through Thumula Waligampola.
The visitors took another huge step towards creating a major upset when Hirusha Sampath dazzled to score their second try few minutes before half time.
However, Kingswood kept on conceding too many penalties to their opponents and the Josephians capitalised fully with Santhush Algama firing across three vital penalties to reduce the deficit to a solitary point.
St. Joseph’s made their intentions clear from the start of the second half as they dominated play through some outstanding work from their mobile set of forwards and the speedy three quarters.
10 minutes into the second half St. Joseph’s produced the match winning try with Theeraka Santhush going over following a superb three quarter move.
Algama was on target with the important conversion and the Joes managed to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Winger Kavinda Keshan then put the issue beyond doubt for the Josephians with a spectacular try shortly before the final whistle.
Algama brought his individual contribution to 13 points in the match with his second conversion as St. Joseph’s booked their place in the final in great style.
By M. Shamil Amit