Second half rally helps Thomians beat Petes 36-3

by Jatila KARAWITA

Superior fitness, levels coupled with ferocious power-play of the forwards, saw S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia, cutting loose in the second-half, after leading 7-3 at half-time, to post an effortless 36-3 win over St. Peter's College, in their President's Schools League rugby encounter ended at Bambalapitiya, yesterday.

As a result of this victory, Shavin Kapuwatte's team retained the Archibald Pereira Trophy for a second successive season.

The Thomians, who have mastered the art of staging second-half fight-backs to a tee, this year, simply ran circles around a hapless St. Peter's outfit, who after containing the visitors in the first-half, crumbled after the restart.

The winners collected their points from three converted tries and three tries to a penalty goal by the hosts, in a contest which livened up only in the second-half.

St. Peter's, opened the proceedings with a 30-metre penalty kicked by wing Sandun Herath for their sole scoring opportunity in the game before S. Thomas' took over to dominate.

The Thomians had to wait till the 35th minute to get their first points on the board, through outside centre Anuruddha Wilwara who ran over 40 metres on the right-flank for a peach of a try after collecting a cut out pass.

With Arjun Manoharan's conversion, STC led 7-3 at the turn around, before getting their act together to dump another five scorching tries, after the interval.

In the second-half sturdily-built number eight Rajindra Gunasekera stood out with a brace of tries (65th minute and 78th minute), while consistent try-scorer and lock Janith Jayasuriya (56th minute), replacement prop Amrith Andrado (60th minute) and hooker Anjula de Silva (stoppage time), also had a touchdown each.

Wing Manoharan converted one of the second-half tries while inside centre William Rudra also chipped in with a conversion as the Thomians proved their prowess among the forwards, for a umpteenth time this season.