Peterites host Joes in clash of the week

By M. Shamil Amit

The inter school league rugby championship enters its second week with eight matches down for decision today and four tomorrow.

Three matches to be played on Saturday will see four teams Wesley, Isipathana, St Joseph’s and St. Peter’s seeking to record their second successive wins.

Apart from possible upsets in other matches, the contest between traditional rivals St Joseph’s College and St. Peter’s College takes top billing with both teams evenly balanced.

The match will be a dual purpose game as apart from the league, the two protagonists will battle it out for the Rev. Fr. Basil Wiratunge Trophy which is the 66th in the series. 

St Peter’s who are the current holders of the Shield are way ahead with 44 wins as against 16 by St Joseph’s.

In fact this is the game of the week as both the Joes and the Peterites won their opening matches and will be taking the field hoping to record their second win.

However it will not be easy to predict the winner although some experts may want to predict the scales are in favour of the Peterites. Some may argue both teams are on an equal footing. The Joes last won the encounter in 2024.

Wesley and Mahanama will be meeting for the second time after their first in the knockout tournament played in March in which Wesley pulled off a thumping 77-3 win.

Wesley will take the field with their heads high as they began the league campaign with a runaway 69-12 win over newcomers Prince of Wales.

Mahanama on the other hand underwent another heavy defeat 67-0 in their first match against St Peter’s and it’s left to be seen whether they could prevent Wesley from going on the rampage again.

Isipathana pulled off a comfortable 43-14 win over St Anthony’s and they will be moving into the game with confidence. But they have not been playing to their potential in the knockout encounters. However they should have little difficulty in brushing off the DS Senanayake challenge in securing their second win.

DS Senanayake after their shocking defeat to Sri Sumangala Kandy will need to put in something special if they are to make any impression. They have undergone successive defeats in the knockout and league encounters that they played and are left with the option of preventing Isipathana from chalking up a big win.

In another match Trinity College can be branded as favourites over arch rivals St. Anthony’s College.

Meanwhile the focus of the four matches scheduled to be played on Sunday will be the encounter between Royal College and Thurstan College.

Will Thurstan be able to pull off another shock win after their surprise triumph against the fancied S. Thomas’ last week, but the scale is highly in favour of Royal.

In the other three matches, Sri Sumangala, Ananda and Zahira are favoured to come out on top.

Match Schedule:

May 2 - Wesley vs Mahanama at Air Force ground Ratmalana, Isipathana vs DS Senanayake at Havelock Park and St Peter’s vs St Joseph’s at Bambalapitiya, Trinity vs St Anthony’s at Pallekele. May 3 - Royal vs Thurstan at Sugathadasa Stadium, Lumbini MV vs Sri Sumangala at Havelock Park, Prince of Wales vs Ananda at Air Force ground Ratmalana and Zahira vs Science at Mount Lavinia. May 4: S. Thomas’ vs Kingswood at Bogambara.