Royal survived a few anxious moments before defeating traditional rivals S. Thomas' by 15 points (01 goal, 01 try & 01 penalty) to 10 (01 goal & 01 try) in a Milo Schools game at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
Playing as underdogs and coming in after two defeats, Royal gave a spectacular performance in the first 20 minutes of play to run up two tries and take a healthy 15 point lead.
Royal opened scoring in the 10th minute, when scrum half Shanaka Perera won a ball from a scrum in the Thomian 40's and made a streaking run evading a host of Thomian defenders to score under the post. Gonaduwa added the extra points for Royal to lead 7-0.
Inspired by the early success, Royal continued to attack as their forwards combined well with the backs and confined play to the Thomian territory. They increased their lead in the 15th minute when Ranendra Gonaduwa was successful with a 35 metre penalty.
With the Thomians still to settle down, Royal made inroads to score again when centre Namesh Panchawarna put the finishing touches to a three quarter move. Gonaduwa missed the conversion as Royal led 15-nil.
After conceding 15 points S. Thomas' finally settled down and played to a set plan, attacking with their heavy set of forwards. Helped by a few booming kicks by fly half Tariq Muna, the Thomians gained considerable territorial advantage. In the 25th minute of play they forced a couple of 5 yard scrums before scoring through Sammy Marrikar. Muna added the extra points as S. Thomas' reduced the deficit.
On the stroke of half time S. Thomas' were awarded a penalty and Muna made no mistake for S. Thomas' to go into lemons at 10-15.
After the turnaround S. Thomas' gave an improved performance as they dominated the set pieces and confined play in the Royal territory. They had the opportunity of putting a few more points on the board when they were awarded two penalties within kicking range. However they opted for the short- tap, but failed to score on both occasions.
The Thomian back division was completely off colour and were unable to match the talents of their forwards. Royal on the other hand, marked their opponents well and tackled hard to keep their opponents at bay. They inflicted the first defeat on the Thomians this season and also won the Micheal Gunaratne Trophy for their performance yesterday which was a marked improvement after two earlier defeats.
Referee Aruna Jayasekera.
In a closely fought out Milo Trophy inter schools match Trinity scored a thrilling 9 (3 penalties) to 5 (Try) win over St. Anthony's at Nittawela yesterday. Trinity led 3-0 at the half.
The architect of Trinity's victory was full back Nuwan Fernando who fired across all three penalties. The first penalty which was on target was fired by Fernando from 45 metres out. St. Anthony's missed an easy chance of equalising when a penalty taken by Pushpakumara hit the cross bar and rebounded into play. At Lemons Trinity led 3-0.
On resumption Fernando put over his second penalty also from midfield for Trinity to lead 6-0. St. Anthony's reduced the lead when skipper Sameera Silva charged on a wild kick gathered and scored by the left upright. Pushpakumara failed the conversion. In the dying minutes of play Fernando put over his third penalty when he was on target from almost 50 metres. This was superb place kicking. Score Trinity 9 -
St. Anthony's 5.
A limited overs cricket match between the Presidents XI of the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind and the Presidents XI of the Federation for Visually Handicapped will be played today.
The match is been organised as part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations and will be played at the Ratmalana Blind School grounds at 9.30 a.m.
The National Athletic Meet of the Visually Handicapped was held yesterday at the Sports Ministry grounds at the Race Course at 9.30 a.m.
University of Moratuwa and Kollupitiya Playgrounds scored wins over University of Sri Jayawardenapura and Old Sastralians SC in their two limited over matches played for the Liptons Trophy and conducted by the Colombo District Cricket Association.
University of Moratuwa beat University of Sri Jayawardenapura by 10 runs at Katubedda.
University of Moratuwa 199 for 9 in 50 overs. (H. Walpola 39, M. Gamage 29, N. Amarajeewa 23, V. Jayaratne 4/44, M. Fonseka 2/31)
University of Sri Jayawardenapura 189 all out in 48 overs. (M. Fonseka 65, A. X. Azim 28, R. Perera 23, R. Devendra 21, T. Satheshan 2/19, N. Indikethewage 2/44)
Kollupitiya Playground beat Old Sastralians SC by 10 runs at Kotte.
Kollupitiya Playground 131 all out in 41.3 overs. (W. Amarasinghe 30, R. Bopitiya 26, D. L. Migara 23, A. Tudor 3/20, M. Namal 3/35)
Old Sastralians SC 121 in 23.4 overs. (D. Chandraratne 35, R. Laksiri 24, S. Gunasekera 4/18, P. Karunaratne 2/12, P. Athale 2/35.)
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