St. Anthony’s College will look to bring an end to a 14-year-old wait when they take on the unbeaten St. Peter’s College outfit in the Inter-Schools Under-19 Division One League Rugby Tournament Super Round Segment match at Bambalapitiya today. The kick-off is at 4.15 p.m.
The Antonians have been at the receiving end for more than a decade having last defeated St. Peter’s 36-22 in the 2009 league tournament fixture at this same venue under the captaincy of centre three quarter Amila Weligampola.
That was also the inaugural year in which the Rectors’ Trophy was on offer for the winners of this game, even though the two schools started playing rugby for the first time in 1959.
The Rectors’ Trophy was donated jointly by the Rugby Foundation of St. Peter’s and the Rugby Wing of St. Anthony’s in honour of past Rectors of the two schools, Rev Fr. Joe Wickramasinghe, who was Rector of St. Peter’s from 1978 to 1994 and Rev. Fr. Aiden de Silva, Rector of St. Anthony’s from 1968 to 1974.
After conceding the Trophy to their opponents in the inaugural year, the Peterites have dominated the series since then and their previous win in a league tournament match was recorded in 2017 when they snatched a 27-25 thriller on their home grounds.
The two schools also met during the 2018 Milo Knock-Out Tournament quarter-finals and on that occasion the Peterites emerged victorious 39-12 at the Royal Sports Complex in Colombo.
This time St. Anthony’s will fancy their chances of toppling the high-riding Peterites after some outstanding rugby in the league phase, where they fought back magnificently to secure the second place from Group 1A.
In contrast, it has been smooth sailing for St. Peter’s, ever since they brought down the formidable Royal College outfit 11-5 in a bruising opening encounter at Bambalapitiya.
Thereafter, there was nothing that could stop St. Peter’s from topping the Group 2A as they went on to record five back-to-back wins against Dharmaraja (34-7), Trinity (22-10), Zahira (56-7), Science College (29-0) and Vidyartha (66-10) respectively.
However, the Antonians will look to draw inspiration from their 2009 encounter where they shocked a formidable St. Peter’s side, which was captained by full back Dilshan Paul and included players of the calibre of number eight Shenal Dias, centre Dhanushka Ranjan and prop forward Steve Nelson.
Royal v Isipathana
The defending champions Isipathana College will be up against a rejuvenated Royal College outfit when they clash in another Super Round segment fixture on Saturday at the Royal Sports Complex in Colombo. This match will also be played for the Major Milroy Fernando Memorial
Trophy, which was donated by Colonel Dudley Fernando in memory of his son, who died in a landmine explosion in Omanthai in January 1986.
Unbeaten Isipathana has been the team to beat this season as they have once again displayed a great amount of determination on the field to top the points table with a maximum of 36 points from six successive victories. However, Royal have got back to their winning formula, and they will be all fired-up after their historic 27-17 triumph over the traditional rivals Trinity last week, which enabled them to retain the Bradby Shield for a record seventh year in-a-row.
Therefore, this will be a stern test for Isipathana as they look to clear their first hurdle in the Super Round segment before taking on St. Peter’s in their league tournament decider next week at Bambalapitiya. Royal, of course, will start the game trailing by 10 points from their
opponents but they would like to keep the momentum and add more silverware by regaining the Trophy, which they last won in 2018.
Therefore, Isipathana will have to make sure that complacency would not creep into their players as until now they have virtually smashed all opponents, while scoring a minimum of four tries in every outing.
Chris Dhambarage