St.Joseph college regained the prestigious Fr.Basil Wirathunga Trophy beating St.Peters College by 25 points ( 3 tries, 2 conversions, 2 penalties) to 10 ( 2 tries) in their Singer ‘A’ Division schools league rugby first round match played at Bambalapitiya yesterday.
At half time the winners led 10-0.
Joes showed better control of the ball in perfect conditions and turned the match in their favour with a rousing game.They were always certain of their game plan , in contrast to the Peterites who often ran aimlessly into their opposite numbers, their by losing control which dashed their hopes of winning the important game.
However, the Peterites staged a spirited comeback in the second half by scoring two quick tries to close the gap with the scores reading 18-10 with the Josephians in the lead.
But the Joes gave a superb brand of running rugby where they enjoyed the major share of possession from the scrums, line outs, set pieces and the break downs by putting up an fine effort to topple the Petes in the second half as well, and ran the ball to gained territorial advantage whenever a gap in the opponents was visible.
Finally St.Joeseph’s sealed the game in their favour by scoring 3 tries through winger Sachith Silva (two) and centre Shan Akila (one) while the two conversions and the two penalties were put over by Sachith Silva.
Scrum half Ravin Fernando and winger Bilal Hilmy scored one try apiece while fly half Steffen Sivaraj missed both the conversions and a penalty for the Peterites .
Referee: Irshad Carder