Royal pass Science test
Both Royal and Science College teams registered their first wins last week thus they came in full of confidence to this encounter played at the Royal Complex yesterday. The Science Coach Collin Dinesh had formulated a beautiful equation of exhilarating runs by their three-quarter lines and crunching tackles by the defenders while the Royal pack showed immense power and strength to bulldoze over their opponents. The Royal coaches Sanath Martis, former coaching colleague at St. Peter’s College and Dushanth Lewke have perfected the age old Royal winning formula using their penetrative No.8 Supun Warnakulasooriya, who braced four tries, and tough-as-nails forwards to crush Science College 37-22. Royal scored from six tries, two conversions and a drop goal while Science responded by scoring three tries, two conversions and a penalty.
A Royal forward gets past the Science defence. – Pic by Ranjith Perera
Science drew first blood by scoring in the fifth minute through their fly half N. Neranjan. In the first ten minutes Royal struggled and was trailing by seven points and seemed to be making a lot of mistakes with their passes and their line failed continuously. However Royal replied in the 18th minute with a stellar try by their winger Mahima Gamage near the corner flag.
From then on Royal was on fire with their forwards. The Royal rolling maul was like an unstoppable juggernaut grinding their way into scoring three amazing tries. These attacks were spearheaded by their penetrative No.8 Supun Warnakulasooriya, he used the channel one route to dissect into the Science defence on many occasions which put the Royal forwards on the front foot. At lemons the score was 20-7 in favour of the home team.
The lads from Mt. Lavinia started the second half on a sour note with a yellow card for No.21 due to foul play. Royal managed to sneak in a drop goal through their fly half Ayendra Subasinghe. The Science team was quick to respond through an up-and-under try from their second row to make the scores 23-10 and further increased their scoring through a penalty under the posts.
Going into the last quarter of the game the Royal line beautifully intercepted a pass inside the 22 metres to score a try through centre Akash Iddawela which Subasinghe converted. A second yellow card was issued to the wing three-quarter of Science for unwarranted play but little time did he spend in the sin bin as the final whistle was blown right after. The scores read 37-22 at full time.