The defending champions Isipathana College and the newly crowned league champions St. Peter’s College have set up a final showdown in the 2023 President’s Trophy Inter-Schools Under-19 Knock-Out Rugby Tournament.

Last week, both teams cleared their semi-final hurdles in contrasting style while also setting up a repeat clash of this year’s ‘A’ Division League Tournament decider played at Bambalapitiya.

Isipathana, after receiving a bye into the semi-final, went on to hammer the giant-killers Zahira College 39-10, on the back of a superb second half rally while St. Peter’s managed to edge past their traditional rivals St. Joseph’s College 16-11 in an absolute thriller at Havelock Park.

Action from the match between Isipathana and Zahira

In fact, the Peterites had to play all their cards to overcome the Joes and eventually it was their substitute scrum half Praneeth Silva’s spectacular last-minute try that sealed their place in the President’s Trophy final.

Until then, their success was in the balance and the game was heading towards extra time with the underdogs St. Joseph’s not giving up their hopes despite a yellow card to their Captain and playmaker Naveen Marasinghe at a vital stage of the game.

Incidentally, the Josephians, who were last year’s President’s Trophy runners-up, looked like they would create the biggest upset of the current season when they built up a surprise 8-0 lead going into half time.

The lads from Darley Road, seemed to have done all their homework well and denied their opponents from dictating terms early with a tremendous all-round performance.

The Joes also had a slight physical advantage over their rivals, and this was very clear when Marasinghe brushed aside three defenders during a powerful display to touch down near the corner flag.

However, St. Peter’s managed to sort out their mistakes soon after the interval and they looked a completely different outfit during the latter stages having also made a couple of decisive substitutions.

The Peterites eventually managed to snatch the lead from their rivals for the first time in the game, just 15 minutes before the final whistle and went on to score the match winning try during the dying stages of the game.

Meanwhile, Isipathana produced a magnificent second-half rally to overpower Zahira College 39-10 in the first semi-final played at Havelock Park. Isipathana, who went into half time with a slender 13-10 lead, cut loose after the break and went on to collect their points from three goals, three tries and one penalty.

Zahira, playing in the President’s Trophy Knock-Out Tournament after a long layoff, made a determined effort to make a match of it before they surrendered in the second half while scoring a goal and a penalty.

Isipathana, of course, took some time to settle down as they were still recovering after their massive setback where they surrendered the league championship to St. Peter’s two weeks ago.

In contrast, Zahira were all fired up after their stunning victory over the favourites D. S. Senanayake College in the quarter-final last week at this same venue as they took the initiative by scoring an early try.

However, Isipathana did not panic, and they soon settled down to play their usual brand of rugby despite the wet conditions and went on to completely rattle their inexperienced opponents in the second half.

Burly prop forward M. R. Mohamed barged over for a pushover try and reliable place-kicker Ahmed Saad added the extra points to hand Zahira the early advantage in this vital encounter.

Isipathana hit back a few minutes later as their speedy back division got their act together well for the first time in the match with Hashen Randimal adding the finishing touches for a corner flag try. Rinesh Silva fumbled with the conversion, but he made amends almost immediately by firing across a neat penalty to give Isipathana the lead for the first time in the match.

Randimal went over for his second try of the match as Isipathana extended their lead to 13-7 before Zahira reduced the deficit with a good penalty from full back Saad.

After the turnaround, Isipathana looked a completely dominant side as they produced some fantastic passages of play to touch down on four occasions through Chamindu Chirath, Iroshana Gamage, Nisaja Jayaweera and Avishka Hiran.