St. Peter’s will face a determined St. Joseph’s outfit in their annual inter-school rugby match, played for the Rev. Fr. Basil Weeratunga Shield, at the CR&FC Grounds, Colombo, this evening.

The Peterites have won the shield continuously for a decade. A key feature in this rugby series between the two schools is St. Peter’s recording a run-away 107-5 win over Joes in 2007. This probably stands as the highest score recorded in the series by either school, the Joe-Pete rugby encounter.

Going by past statistics, St. Joseph’s, today, should come out screaming for revenge. The Joes had a fine season last year in the B Division tournament and were promoted to contest the A Division rugby tournament this season.

St. Joseph’s, coached by Dishantha Priyadharshana, beat Trinity (27-24) early in the season and have displayed all signs of going places. But the lads from Maradana failed to live up to expectations, losing badly to Kingswood (51-8) and S. Thomas’ (38-13). Their solitary win this season was against St. Anthony’s College (27-25).

St. Peter’s too started off with a bang beating Dharmaraja (61-0). Defeats at the hands of Royal (30-10) and Isipatana (22-12) put them out of the running for any one of the top three places in the points table. But hidden talents in the team surfaced in no uncertain terms when they gave Trinity a scare before going down fighting 33-43, at Bambalapitiya.

Sanath Martis’ lads have enough potential to prevail over the Josephians. But the Peterite scrum has creaked all along this season and has been a cause for worry.

Teams:

St. Peter’ College; Steven Nelson, Isuru Alwis, Salin Mendis, Soyuru Anthony,Shenal Dias, Chamith Madurawela, Asitha Ratnayake, Keith Gurusinghe, Ruchira Perera, Banuka Nanayakkara, Srinath Perera, Sandun Herath or Anisha Fernando, Danushka Ranjan, Lakith Perera and Dilshan Paul (Captain)