Royal huff and puff but escape in a cliffhanger
A Royal player on the charge against Wesley - Pic by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi
Defending champions Royal, one of the contenders for the Singer Under-19 Inter-School Rugby League was given a fright as they huffed and puffed to record a cliffhanger one point win against a gritty Wesley outfit by 18 points to 17 in a second round match played at Longdon Place yesterday.
Royal was made to struggle for survival in the first half as Wesley shocked them by taking the lead at the breather 17-15 before Royal scraped through to win in the second half with the solitary penalty booted over which incidentally was the only scoring done in this session.
Referee Dinka Peiris, who officiated, made a mess of the match and being an experience campaigner he stopped the match for nearly eight minutes in the second half citing that the spectators were hooting and casting remarks and also refused to come into the playing field.
The incident only provoked the spectators of the two sides which unfortunately ended with fist cuffs exchanged, chairs being thrown and the touch judges being man handled for the big mistake done by the referee, which incidentally was his second in this ongoing season,
Now going to the match, as expected Royal did the first scoring through a penalty booted over by full back Dulan Gunawardena which was short-lived as Wesley answered back in the same style with full back Mursheed Zubair’s penalty booted.
The two sides sharing honours saw Royal going into the lead with a try scored by second row Sashika Siyath while Gunawardena added the extra points.
Wesley unperturbed gave the Royalists some anxious moments and succeeded to make it quits with a peach of a under the post try by flanker Aaqib Thahir and Zubair made no mistake with the conversion.
Buoyed by the try the Wesleyites put the Royalists defence under pressure and they surprised them with centre Sahan Hansaja intercepting a pass midway in Royal territory sprinted his way for an under the post try and with Zubair booting over the conversion saw Wesley taking a seven point lead 17-10.
Royal even though finding it tough to get past the Wesley defence, they managed to score a try scored by prop forward Himantha Hirushan but the kick at goal was fluffed with which the short whistle was blown.
On resumption the match was no doubt going to be a blockbuster with Wesley’s approach to the game surprising the many spectators. Royal receiving a penalty offered right opposite the post for an infringement saw Dulan Gunawardena booting it over with ease.
That was all going to be the scoring as the momentum of the match was slowed down with game being stopped and it resumed and ended with Royal undergoing a narrow escape and hanging on to a cliffhanger one point win.