Unbeaten Royal College broke the heart of St.Joseph’s College Maradana when they pulled off a hard fought 18 points (2 tries, 1 conversion, 2 penalties) to 13 (1 try, 1 conversion, 2 penalties) victory in their Singer ‘A’ Division inter-schools league rugby tournament first round game played at Havelock Park yesterday. At half time Royal led 10-7.
Royal forwards fought like terriers in the whole match combining effectively with their three quarters giving no room for their opponents winning all the line outs through Fadhil Adahan. St.Joseph’s finally collapsed to the relentless pressure from the entire Royal outfit.
Joes scored in the very first minute of the game and went into a 7-nil lead when winger Dulanjana Piyatissa outfoxed and went through the Royal defence, where he finally drew the final defender and sent his full back Tharindu Maduranga over to score a try with a peach of an offload. Skipper and fly half Samesha Verangana made the conversion.
In the 11th minute of play Royal cut down the lead to 7-3 when their full back Dulan Gunawardena slotted in a 25 metre penalty.
Within nine minutes Royal grabbed the lead making it 10 points to 7 when off a rolling maul their prop forward Himantha Hirushan collected the ball from the back of the maul and dived over to score a try. Gunawardena fired across the conversion.
At lemons the score stood at 10-7 in favour of Royal.
After the turn around with pressure mounting on the Joes, Royal added more pressure when in the 40th minute their number eight Ifham Fareed barged through for a try off a ruck. Gunawardena missed the difficult conversion but the lead increased to 15-7.
Within three minutes Joes cut down the lead to 15-10 when their skipper Verangana put over a simple 15 metre penalty.
Verangana put over another simple 25 metre penalty in the 48th minute of the match to reduce the lead to 15 points to 13.
In the 57th minute Royal full back Gunawardena missed a difficult 35-metre penalty.
Royal sealed the game in style, when Gunawardena slotted in a simple 20 metre penalty in the 67th minute make the score 18-13.
Referee Dinka Peiris had a miserable game with the whistle.
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