Royal trounce Thomians to regain the ‘Gunaratne Trophy’
Royal College trounced their arch rivals S. Thomas’ College by 36 points (3 goals, 3 tries) to 17 ( 1 goal, 2 tries) in a second round Singer Schools Under-20 Division ‘A’ rugby league tournament game and with it recaptured the Michael Gunaratne trophy that they lost last year, at the Royal College Sports Complex yesterday.
For any Thomian supporter the result itself may have been a foregone conclusion based on current form and perhaps the hope of a repetition of “David conquering the giant Philistine Goliath” faded away as early as in the second minute, when standoff Praveen Ferdinando kicked astray what was the simplest of penalties from 20 metres out which would have given them the lead.
The Thomians who displayed their ever famous “Thomian Grit” in spurts throughout, never gained the lead at any time during the game, but rather defiantly crossed the Royal line on not more than three occasions. All tries however were scored from a position where they were always lagging behind the score board.
Up until the 20th minute the Royalist were in the lead by a slender margin of five points when a try was scored by captain and full back Nimshan Jayawardene as early as the 7th minute. The Thomians responded through an unconverted try scored by their nippy scrum half Asanga Ranasinghe who dazzled his way to score a try to draw the scores level at 5 apiece.
The rest of the first half saw Royal score two more tries, the first a push over by Supun Warnakulasuriya and the second by skipper Jayewardene who waltzed his way to score under the posts. Jaywaydene put over the two conversions himself. The Thomians hit back just before the breather when center Navin Henkankanage formed the overlap to score mid left. Ferdinando put over the conversion as Royal lead 19/12 at the short whistle which was blown by A.C. Tennekkon.
With the kick off of the second half Royal winger Daniel Gunasekaram scored an unconverted try to give his side a 24/12 lead.
The Thomians who camped in the Royal half ten minutes later, perhaps have themselves to blame for losing three consecutive lines out in the Royal 22’ when in attack. The third loss in that series of lines out helped the spectators’ witness what was easily the “play of the day”. Royal worked the line after “out jumping” their opponents throw in and centre Bhanuka Gamage sprinted almost 60 metres along the right touchline off loading to Jayawardene who in turn passed it onto to Gunasekaram to score his second try under the posts. The conversion by Jayawardene sealed the win as they surged to a 31-12 lead.
The Royalist at one point were down to 13 players as second row Umesh Madushan and prop Thivanka Perera were sent to the cooler. The Thomians could not make amends having this advantage and settled for unconverted try a piece when Thomian hooker Pandula de Silva scored mid left and Roayalist prop forward Thivanka Perera who barged over to score before he was “sin binned” earlier.
S. Thomas’ College won the junior game 7-3.