Second half Royal rally floors bemused Wesley
View(s):By David Stephens
Following an extremely deflated early display, Royal College, buoyed by a mixture of gutsy offense on their part and defensive hara-kiri by their opponents, stormed back into their Singer Under 20 Division One ‘A’ match against Wesley College to register a 31 (4 goals, 1 penalty) – 12 (1 try, 1 goal) victory at Longden Place yesterday.
Their performance, although by no means perfect, proved to their doubters that they are still very much a force to be reckoned with in the league. They inflicted their damage through a second half burst, sending Fly Half Rimze Jamaldeen, Winger Udesh Ranaweera and Fullback Nimshan Jayawardena over the line to add to Ranaweera’s opening try.
A Royal player tries to offload as he is being brought down by a Wesley defender. - Pic Ranjith Perera
Wesley College, in the meantime, suddenly turned off their engines after an exhilarating first half where wingers Sajith Ariyawansa and B. Jurangpathy recorded two brilliant tries. In truth, although Royal largely dominated play, the match should have ended a lot closer, but Wesley kept piling on the errors with flippant passing and lackadaisical defence.
It all began well for Wesley as they rushed out of the gates, with Ariyawansa thrashing over the line for an unconverted try after just three minutes of play. They had set the pace, and although Royal struck back in the 12th minute through a try from Ranaweera, which was converted by Jamaldeen, Wesley were looking threatening with their superior pace.
On the brink of halftime, they made their move in a play which would have left even the highest rugby gods nodding in approval. B. Jurangpathy grabbed the ball deep in Royal territory, shimmied past a desperate first tackle and then danced his way across the field, skipping by several hapless defenders, to dart over the try line. Scrum Half Rahul de Silva converted to give Wesley a 12-7 lead.
That was to be all the offensive brilliance Wesley could muster, as it was all one-way traffic in the second half. Jamaldeen knocked over a penalty to bring Royal within two points before Wesley decided to turn the barrel homeward. Deep in their 22, they kept passing the ball back until they casually passed it straight into the hands of the marauding Jamaldeen, who snatched it and sailed over the line. He added the two points which gave Royal a 17-12 lead and had Wesley heads, both on and off the field, hanging.
Fatigue was setting into Wesley’s play, and Royal took advantage through Ranaweera, after he latched on to a fine pass to put the Royalists up 24-12. Whatever hope Wesley would have had of coming back into the game were snuffed out minutes later, as Jayawardena dashed over the line to give Royal a much-needed win.
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