‘Thora’ cut to pieces

Royal – 35 S. Thomas’ - 0

By Rangi Akbar

Royal wrested back the Michael Gunaratne Trophy in a typical smash and grab style of play when they drubbed S. Thomas’, Mt. Lavinia 35-nil in their annual rugby encounter at the Royal Complex yesterday. The Royal points were made up of seven tries. As one Royal rugby pundit put it: “Who needs a place kicker when Royal can score seven tries!”

TRY AND STOP ME. This Royal player is in full cry with a desperate Thomian trying to stop him. Royal drubbed S. Thomas’ 35-0 to take back the Michael Gunaratne Trophy at the Royal Complex yesterday. - Pic by Gemunu Wellage

With this victory the Royalists also flashed a warning to the Trinitians in the second leg of the Bradby Shield to be played at Bogambara on September 23. Trinity won the first leg 21-10 in Colombo last week.

Security was very tight at the match as two of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s sons were playing in the S. Thomas’ team and another was helping the team. The Wijeya Newspapers Press Card and even the Government Media Accreditation Card were completely ignored by security.

Royal were never in doubt of winning as they possessed a superior unit. S. Thomas’ played in patches and were often hesitant in attack. Their defence too looked weak in the face of the mounting Royal attacks.

Branu Rahim, a Royal College Match Organizing Committee member was apologetic about the tight security which curtailed the movements of the reporters covering the game. “We had nothing to do with the security”, he said. “It would have been worse if the President and the First Lady were at the match.”

Royal opened scoring in the 24th minute when Bilal Hasan scored far right. Then came a neat break by Royal skipper Chamara Gamage to score mid left.

Slowly but surely Royal took control of the game. The Thomians fought against superior odds. At the breather Royal led 15-0.

On resumption Royal continued scoring tries through Gayshan Wijesinghe, Dhiran Warnakulasuriya, Kamada Weerakoon and Manel Abhayaratne to swell their score to 35.

Royal’s performance this year: Beat St. Peter’s, Science College Mt. Lavinia, St. Joseph’s, Vidyartha and Dharmarajah. However they lost to Isipatana and then to Trinity in the first leg of the Bradby.

S. Thomas’ started off with a bang with a win over Ananda, then they lost to St. Peter’s, Kingswood, Wesley, Trinity, St. Anthony’s and in a sudden turn around beat Thurstan to record their second win for the season.

Royal also won the Under 18 game comfortably at 21-5 win. C. Shailendra, M.R. Rafiq and S, Ahmed scored the bulk of the points for the Royalists.

Mr. Priyantha Gunaratne refereed the first XV game.