Thomians edge out Petes to retain Archibald Perera Trophy

S. Thomas’ College pulled off a thrilling 23-22 victory over St. Peter’s College in their annual Inter-Schools Under-20 rugby encounter played at Bambalapitiya yesterday.

The Thomians collected their points from four tries and one penalty after having led 20-14 at half time and went on to retain the Archibald Perera Memorial Trophy for another year.

The Peterites of course have only themselves to be blamed for missing out several scoring opportunities as they lost their fourth match of the current season having collected their points from two goals, one try and one penalty.

The Thomians got off to a flying start as they scored four tries during a superb first-half performance although the momentum kept on changing every few minutes of the game.

But the home side came back strongly in the second half to dominate the proceedings with their acting Skipper Chanuka Cooray leading the way through some terrific loose play.

In fact, the Peterites snatched the lead (22-20) mid-way in the second half with Chathumina Nethsara scoring a beautiful try near the corner flag, which was followed by a good penalty from Windya de Mel.

However, the reliable Yehan Bulathsinhalage fired across a crucial penalty a few minutes from the final whistle as the Thomians went ahead once again 23-22 and held on to that lead until the end.

Earlier, S. Thomas’ enjoyed a productive first half with Mahith Perera and Rehan Wickremasuriya doing the scoring with Bulathsinhalage missing out on all conversions.

Hiran Gunaratne scored the first try for St. Peter’s with Emith Jayaweera adding the extra points.