Sandesh double keeps Petes on top

By Harsha Amarasinghe

Centre Sandesh de Mel bagged a brace as St. Peter’s College thumped Dharmaraja College by 42 points (six tries, six conversions) to five points (one try) in their Inter-Schools Under-19 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament match worked off at Police Park, Bambalapitiya yesterday.

Their third victory of the season kept the Peterites on top of Group ‘B’ at the end of what turned out to be a very much one-sided game where the team from Bambalapitiya outclassed the visitors who had been frustrated by the delayed kick-off earlier on.

A member of the Dharmaraja supporting staff had complaint to the match officials about their decision to start the game at 4.30 p.m despite having earlier informed the Kandy side that the match would start at 4.15 p.m.

Dharmaraja had finished off their warm-ups in order to begin the game at 4.15 p.m but the players were left wandering around for 15 minutes.

This though had no impact on the outcome of the result as St. Peter’s had the game well under control until the final whistle with de Mel crossing the whitewash within the last five minutes of the first half after early tries from fly half Dilshan Madushanka and number eight Bilal Hilmy.

Full back Shehan Liyanapathirana had a brilliant day booting over six conversions in addition to a try in the 49th minute which saw him collecting 17 points off the game while second row forward Nishran Nillar wrapped up what was a sensational day for the Petes with a 57th minute try.

The Rajans on the other hand, had a day to forget with another heavy defeat. They did have a consolation try from scrum half Supun Wijesiri but having already conceded 13 tries in two games the Kandy side looks to be leading the race for the relegation.

Their day got even worse when the Captain Bawantha Udangamuwa was stretched off during the latter stages of the game.