Royal in tough win

Royal College bounced back from a 3-17 deficit to seal a 25 (3-tries, 2-conversions, 2-penalties) – 22 (3-tries, 2-conversions, 1-penalty) victory over St. Joseph’s College at Royal Complex while Isipathana College preserved the status quo at the summit of the Singer Inter-school Under-20 Division 1 League Rugby Tournament coming from behind to trounce Trinity College 37-22 at Pallekele yesterday.
Despite conceding a 17-3 lead to Joes inside the opening 15 minutes, Royal struck back in the latter stages of the first half to gain one point advantage at the breather (18-17). It all started off pretty much the same way Royal scored most of their tries this season as their number eight Supun Warnakulasooriya touched down off a rolling maul in the 31st minute to collect his 14th try in the league campaign, after St. Joseph’s prop forward Stephan Gregory was sent to the sin-bin.
Five minutes later wing three quarter Mahima Gamage scored near the right corner flag: he was nicely set up by the captain Bhanuka Gamage. Full back Ovin Askey though failed to convert the first try, made no mistake with the second as he succeeded in adding points from a very difficult angle before helping his side gain the lead in the 40th minute with a penalty kick.
The Josephians however, never gave up until the very last minute. In fact they played quite well in the second half not allowing Royalists any free runs or space to work with. Their resilience eventually came to an end in the 60th minute when they had no answer to a sparkling run made by the Royal scrum half Ashok Wijekumar who earned his side’s third try.
Once Royal took 25-17 lead, it looked all too much for the Darley Road boys, but they gave the hosts a real scare when wing three quarter Vinul Fernando fell over the line to score an unconverted try with just nine minutes remaining.
Royal did hold on to their three-point advantage and now will look to bring back the title to Reid Avenue, but right throughout the season they have been very sloppy at the beginning of the matches and Saturday was no different.
Joes took a 10-3 lead through scrum half Vimukthy Rahul in the ninth minute and centre Romesh Priyankara humiliated the Royal defense as he celebrated while he was on his way to score Josephians’ second, four minutes later.
Although Joes were defeated, their full back Shamilka Kurumbalapitiya had a wonderful day with the boot as well as a back division player. He added ten points through the kicks at the goal and was very lively on the field.
Meanwhile, Science College defeated Kingswood College, Kandy 37-22 at Mount Lavinia.