Royal College kept their reputation intact when they came from behind 3-0 down to beat St. Joseph’s College by 17 points (3 tries, 1 conversion) to 3 points (1penalty) in their Dialog inter-school league rugby match played at Havelock Park yesterday.
At half time Royal College were leading 7 points to 3.
The match got off to a fantastic start with both forwards engaged in a hectic battle for position. Even though Joes forwards were bigger in size, the smaller Royal pack played a faster game in the loose.
The surprising factor was the entire Royal three-quarter line were very much faster than the Joes three-quarters, even though they played without their original skipper cum centre, Peiris who did not play this game due to a concussion last week against the Thomians.
Joes opened scoring when a Royal forward was penalized for an infringement and fullback Dilshara Subash put over the 30-metre penalty.
In the 12th minute of play, Royal equalled the score when their second row forward Rahil Wijesekara scored through a rolling maul and Nabil Yahiya slotted in the conversion.
After the resumption in the 64th minute of play in the second half off another rolling maul, Royal hooker Danuja Samararatne touched down for a superb try far left. Yahiya failed with the difficult conversion but Royal went in to a 12-3 lead.
In 67th minute of the game Royal scrum half Hasnaka Hikgoda put the game to bed when he collected the high ball and sprinted through the St. Joseph’s defence to score an exceptional try far left to which Yahiya missed converting and the score read 17-3 in favour of Royal College.
Referee: Ishanka Abayakoon