Royal wreck Zahira
After being locked at 3-all at halftime, a strong rally in the second half secured Royal a thumping victory
Royal College secured another all-important bonus point win with a powerful performance in the second half of the game to claim a resounding 44-3 victory against a spirited Zahira College at Royal Sports Complex yesterday.
It was a fight against two extremely good set of forwards as the lads from Maradana shunned the Reid Avenue unit to dominate the game with their heavy pack as early on in the game the customary rolling maul by Royal.
The final score doesn’t reflect how well the Zahira played. If not for the silly mistakes made by the team, the score would have been much closer.
Royal scrumhalf Simak Shafeek put over a penalty in the 12th minute that was awarded for an offside offence by Zahira. However Zahira came back strong with a penalty of their own converted by fullback Mohamed Saad, who had an outstanding game to bring the score 3-all.
On the 33rd minute Saad took a very optimistic 60-yard penalty which fell short of the posts. Both teams made handling errors at critical junctures of the game which prevented them from scoring any further in the first half.
After the change of ends, in 37th minute Royal converted a penalty that was awarded to them due to a Zahairian forward holding on to the ball. Just few moments later Royal backs combined well with the forwards for blind side winger Savindu Pathirana to score on the left flank. The conversion was missed by Shafeek.
Shafeek fluffed a penalty in the 44th minute in front of the Zahira posts to keep the score 11-3 in favour of Royal. Just five minutes later, Royal, who looked more poised with reinforcements from the bench in the second half of play upped the tempo when loose-head prop forward P. Kavinash, off a pick and drive, scored on the left side, which again went unconverted as Royal extended their lead to 16-3.
Nabeel Hassan scored Royal’s third try, under the post in the 62nd minute, which was converted by Nabil Yehiya as the hosts expanded the lead to 23-3. Three minutes later Royal went flat out to score their fourth try, and earn the vital bonus point. The try was scored by winger Yasiru Seneviratne, as Yehiya made no mistake with the conversion to take the score to 30-3.
With the Zahira pack running out of steam from the belligerent onslaught by the hosts, Royal bagged their fifth try when forward Akram Faruk off a pick and drive scored near the righthand post in the 68th minute. Yehiya’s conversion extended the lead to 37-3.
On the last move of the day, Royal bagged their sixth and final try of the game try when Savindu Pathirana crashed for the second time off a superb run by the backs. With the striking conversion by Yehiya, the game to come to close at 44-3 in favour of Royal.
Referee Aruna Shantha