St. Peter’s College flying winger Vishenka Silva is running circles around rival teams in the current Dialog inter school league rugby champions as the leading try scorer who has crossed the line 11 times from five matches.
He started off by devastating the defences of promoted Thurstan College with six tries as the Peterites smashed their opponents scoring 112 points, the highest tally so far in the season.
Vishenka’s fleet footed gazzle-like runs was apparently too much in the match against Thurstan College that his coach Sanath Martis pulled him out of play in the second half.
In their last match against Zahira College on Friday, Vishenka crossed the line for two more tries as he flew in to touch down on the last occasion as the Peterites won 62-8.
Try scoring was initially taken to a high level by Sri Lanka’s legendary flanker Hisham Abdeen who scored a record 26 tries in a season in 1981 playing for Isipathana College.
The record was broken by Peterite winger Rinaz Mohamed who converted from running the 200 metres in athletics with 28 tries.
Schools rugby has since come a long way from the days of Abdeen, who now runs an acdemy for kids, as players are now thrust into tournaments that are more demanding than in the past with some schools investing as much as Rs 35 to 40 million for a season and bigger crowds patronizing matches.
The Peterites are the current defending League champions and have a date with traditional rival Royal College on July 27 at the Royal Sports Complex ground.
