Schools Milo Knockout semis and Super Rugby Finals :

A fiery weekend in the offing

St. Peter's College, Bambalapitiya sacked their Scottish coach, Ben Macdougall just prior to their participation in a Milo Schools Knockout tournament and brought in Rajiv Perera and Mothilal Jayathilaka to strengthen the team in the knockouts.

The Schools rugby governing body has also agreed to the request made by Science College to change the semi final venue to Havelock Park as Royal College, Colombo is bound to have an advantage if the semi finals were played at Royal Complex .

The date of the semis too has now been changed to July 6. The other semi final between Isipathana College, Colombo and Trinity College, Kandy will go ahead as scheduled on July 5 at the Royal College Sports Complex. The Schools rugby governing body has agreed to a request made by Isipathana College to host the finals at the Sugathadasa stadium if Royal College comes into the Finals on July 12.

Incidentally, Royal College and Isipathana College received 'byes' in their Milo Schools knockout championship Quarter finals last week.

In the Milo Schools Under 20 Knockout championship quarter finals, Science College withstood a fierce second half rally from the rejuvenated St. Peter's College to win by 27 points to 22 at the Royal Complex Colombo last Saturday.

Trailing 22-5 at half time, the 'Do or die' Peterites forwards gave the famed Science 'Eight', a torrid time in the second half spearheaded by Centre number eight, Nishon Perera who was a treat to watch when he was all over the field and gave a dazzling display both in attack and defence and clearly stood out from the rest. Ably supported by hooker, V. Anjana 2nd Row, Rahal Delpachithra, Maleesha Rajapaksha and flanker Ranith Silva in the loose. The Peters 'Eight' won most of the set pieces and turn-overs hence won an abundance of possesion for St. Peters.

The Science three quarters, Tharindu and Thanuj, the two brothers and fullback, Supun Dilshan impressed with his safe collections, booming kicks to touch in addition to his daring runs by creating overlaps.

Captain Kevin Dixon, Avishka Ranasinghe, Sandesh Jayawickrema, Harshana Peiris and Diyath Fernando excelled from the three quarters for the Peterites.

St. Peter's fullback, Kamesh Fernando and some of the other three-quarters were guilty of spilling passes at crucial moments and they were also looking suspect when collecting the up-and-under kicked by Science College.

Incidentally, before the final whistle, Science College went through several anxious moments in the second half before emerging victorious. Referee Dinka Peiris had a miserable game with the whistle.

In the other match, Trinity College kept their reputation intact as they went on to score a runaway 41 point to 14 win over D. S. Senanayake College, Colombo at the Royal College Sports Complex, Colombo on the last Sunday in their Milo Schools Under 20 Knockout championship quarter finals after holding on to a healthy 22-7 lead at half time.

The Trinitians displayed a fantastic brand of open rugby with their run and pass game which enabled them to register this runaway victory.

Trinity's hero of the day was their dynamic centre threequarter, Sanushka Abeywickrama who had an outstanding game where he managed to punch holes in DSS's defence with his dashing play and combined effectively with his entire three quarter line to score two sensational tries for Trinity.

Captain Isuru Rangala, 2nd Row Rahul Karunathilaka, Rishane Madena, Rukshan Dhammapala and Nathan Yee were superb in attack and defence. Their speedy threequarters in Anouk Boyagoda, Sanushka Abeywickrema, G. Pethiyagoda, Ryan Weerakoon and D. Dange also breached the DSS defence on several occasions.

For DSS their captain cum centre, M. Abeysekara M. Ashroff, Siddiq Brothers and their fullback played an outstanding game, but could not prevent the formidable Trinity College lads from emerging victorious. Referee Priyantha Gunarathna had an outstanding game with the whistle.

Warataha vs Highlanders - An All Kiwi Super Rugby final

Waratahs coach Michael Cheika has revealed that they will share the No 12 role a little but more than usual in their Super Rugby semi final against the Highlanders. Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph says that the Otago based Super Rugby side had a little scare ahead of their Semifinal when Lima Sopoaga limped off in training. The Hurricanes booked a home Super Rugby Grand final by beating the Brumbies 29-9 in the Semi-final at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. It will be only the second time the Hurricanes have made the final of the southern hemisphere championship, with their previous appearance nine years ago resulting in a 19-12 loss to the Canterbury Crusaders.

The Brumbies, two times champions, were keen to establish an early stronghold knowing their arduous schedule over the past two weeks en route to Wellington via South Africa would catch up with them.But after the Hurricanes shut down a barrage of salvoes inside their 22 over the first five minutes, the flavour changed on one crucial turnover by flanker Ardie Savea.

The ball was spun to Milner-Skudder as the 'Canes targeted Brumbies left wing Joe Tomane, defying talk they would attack the much less experienced Lausii Taliauli who was called in as a replacement for suspended Henry Speight.As new All Black Milner-Skudder constantly mesmerised the Brumbies, Dane Coles, TJ Perenara, Ma'a Nonu and Julian Savea all went within a whisker of scoring only to be denied by handling errors.But when they opted for a more patient approach, the passes stuck and left wing Julian Savea crossed in the corner.

Perenara then started and finished a 50-metre move that again featured Milner-Skudder as the Hurricanes took a 12-0 lead before Jesse Mogg landed a penalty on the stroke of half-time to put the Brumbies on the board.Ardie Savea scored from a lineout drive after the restart with James Marshall, taking over the kicking duties from Beauden Barrett, adding the conversion to stretch the lead to 19-3.The Brumbies closed the gap with two penalties by Christian Lealiifano but they were unable to cross the line while the Hurricanes finished off with a Marshall penalty who also converted a try by Matt Proctor.

The Highlanders set up an all New Zealand Super Rugby final against the Hurricanes by upsetting the Waratahs 17-35 at Allianz Stadium in Sydney bringing an end to the Waratahs reign as champions.