Royal outclass Rajans ahead of Bradby
Royal College put on another powerful performance to beat Dharmaraja College 36-18 in their Dialog Schools Rugby League game played at Reid Avenue yesterday. Both teams were guilty of fundamental handling errors, especially the Royalists who looked susceptible under the high ball would have rung alarm bells for the Reid Avenue coaching staff, especially with the first leg of the Bradby Shield scheduled next Saturday.
On the 11th minute Dharmaraja were the first to put points on the board as centre Sadeesha Weerawansha, who put over a penalty to take the score 3-0. Three minutes later they extended the lead by a further three points with Weerawansa putting over a penalty, for a silly infringement by the Royalists.
The lads from Reid Avenue, who usually play with a calm demeanor, were rattled further when they gave away a third kickable distance penalty on the 20th minute in front of the post which was again easily converted by Weerawansa as the Rajans extended the lead to 9-0.
On the 26th minute, Royal forwards combined well with the backs for blindside winger Samarasinghe to score under the post off a brilliant offload from Thanweer Hassan, who drew the Rajan defense and opened the overlap. Simak Shafeek put over an easy conversion to take the score 9-7 in favour of the Rajans.
On the 30th minute, Royal forwards executed their customary rolling maul to perfection for hooker, B.N. Mohamed to score on the left corner. Shafeek missed the conversion as Royal took the lead by 12-9 for the first time. On the stroke of half time, Weerawansa bought his team back into the game off a penalty to level the score 12-all.
A minute after the resumption Royal skipper, P.R.N. Bandara showed a clean pair of heals to score on the mid right, which was easily converted by Nabil Yahiya as Royal regained the lead 19-12. Three minutes later, the Royalists secured their bonus point with a fourth try off another powerful rolling maul for Mohamed to fall over. The try was converted by Yahiya as Royal extended the lead to 26-12.
Weerawansa put over a 40-metre penalty for an offside offence and cut the gap to 26-15. However, the consistent pressure by the Royal forwards resulted in the 57th minute for Mohamed score his third try off a 30-metre rolling maul which the Rajans forwards had no answer to. Yehiya missed the conversion but Royal’s lead was stretched to 31-15.
On the 65th minute, off a period of good continuous play, winger Yasiru Seneviratne scored on the right flank to extend the lead to 36-15 after Yehiya missed the conversion. On the 70th minute with the referee’s long whistle seconds away, Weerawansa put over his sixth and final penalty to close the game 36-18 in favour of Royal.
There was much confusion at the press box as the team sheet provided to the live commentary team and journalists was minus of the jersey numbers of players from Royal College. The Sunday Times hope this error would not be repeated in future schools’ games.