In a match that was marred as a contest by a short, sharp downpour ten minutes after the start, Kingswood were able to squeeze out a 15 points (1 goal, 1 try, 1 penalty) to 10 ( 2 tries) win over Royal at Bogambara yesterday. The fierceness of the scrap was evident from the 10 all score at half-time.
Ideally, the soggy conditions underfoot should have helped Royal’s formidable forwards.
They certainly showed diverse attacking skills. But Kingswood had better balance, excelling in both attack and defence. Royal’s back division players had individual skill but they could not put it all together.
Royal kept driving forward in attack the first ten minutes or so, but a try was elusive. A superb break by Kingwood’s centre Lavanka Perera took play deep into Royal territory. The latter was forced to touch down in defence. But minutes later Royal’s defence gave and centre P.C Jayalath put Kingswood in front by touching down. J.M Weerasinghe converted.
Royal’s forwards duly provided goods when they pressured the home team defence and number eight L. Pavithra went over for an unconverted try. Centre Tharaka Wijesinghe score for Royal after receiving a well- timed pass. Full back Mushin missed out on the conversion once more.
Thilina Weerasinghe kicked over a 30 yard penalty to make it 10 all at the break.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Kingswood got the points that ultimately mattered when Jayalath sliced through a gap from fifteen yards out. (15-10)
Perera, who had a fine game, and Sansoni whose combination was deadly almost got another. However Sansoni’s kick ahead with the Royal defence in shambles went over the dead ball line
Royal threw everything into the attack and tried a few tricks in the book to get the equalizer but Kingswood put in a stern, unyielding defence.- AK
Referee- Gamini
Indrasena
U U14- Royal 7/0
U16- Kingswood 28/0 |
E-mail
