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Kingswood take plum for 3rd consecutive year
The undisputed ‘Kings’
By Shamseer Jaleel
The undisputed schools rugby ‘kings’ stamped their class once again when they warded off the challenge posed by St. Peter’s by a margin of 23 points ( a goal, two tries and two penalties) to 3 points (1 penalty) in the final of the Milo President’s Trophy at the Sugathadasa Stadium, yesterday. This is the third successive year that Kingswood has taken charge of this rugby plum.
The winners lead 18-3 at the short breather.

The Kingswoodians had too much flair and power as they ran into plant three unanswered tries in the initial half. The Petrites on their part ran out of ideas and only pinned hopes on their forwards but were well held by their opponents. In short they played well below par. They dropped far too many passes and struggled to win the line outs. They had a shocking initial half with their fly half Tuan Meedin missing an easy penalty in the 5th minute of the game.

Kingswood opened scoring through a superb five meter scrum when their linkman Heshan Premaratne foxed the entire Peterite defence to score mid right. Skipper Eranda Weerakody was on target to take an early 7-0 lead.
In the 15 minute Kingswood fly half Dev Anand executed a superb 30 meter drop goal to take a 10-0 lead. Tuan Meedin reduced the Kingswoodian lead when he was on target with an easy penalty for St. Peter’s. In the 25th minute of the game Kingswood went further ahead when their number 8 brushed aside a few Petrite defenders to score under the posts to give Eranda Weerakody an easy conversation. (15-3).

In the last minute before the short breather Eranda Weerakody took the lads from Kandy further ahead when he was on target with another 30 metre penalty.

After the turn around it was the lads from Bambalapitiya who played well controlling the game with some superb forward play but lacked the finishing touches. They were well held by the rock solid Kingswood defence who kept them away from scoring any tries. Sajith Adikari led the side from the front with some superb number 8 breaks. But his effort was in vain as he lacked support from the forwards who failed to coordinate with the three quarters. They really missed the services of their star centre Shehan Khalid who is nursing an injury.

In the 27th minute of the game Kingswood went further ahead when their second rower Nuwan Bandara scored through a fine piece of loose play. He planted a super try through the shell shocked Peterites.

The champion side not only remained unbeaten this year but also won the league too. They were coached by Ronnie Ibrahim. Another feature in Schools rugby this year was that the Kandy Schools bagged all the trophies on offer. Trinity winning the division “C”, Division “B” was won by St Anthony’s and Kingswood won the Division “A”.

Referee Dilroy Fernando
In the Premier Trophy final Isipathana beat Science College by 26 points (3 goals, 1 try) to 15 points (1 penalty goal, 1 try, 1 penalty).

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