Royal stun Thomians with 24-15 win

Royal prop Ayesh Maduranga is tackled by Thomian captain Pandula de Silva (Pic by Nishantha S Priyantha)
Royal College, Colombo secured a spot in the President's Trophy knockout rugby tournament final after they beat S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia24 (3-goals, 1-penalty) to 15 (1-goal, 1-try, 1-penalty) in the semi-final which concluded at Royal Complex at Reid Avenue yesterday.
The Royalists will now face Isipathana College in the all important final next week. S. Thomas' had a great opportunity to score within just two minutes as they were awarded a penalty around 30 meters away from the post. However, centre Ashwantha Herath failed to make any use of the opportunity kicking it wide.
However, in the 15th minute, S. Thomas made amends for their earlier mistake sending second row Wayne Mack to score their first try. They put a lot of pressure on the Royal forwards before eventually going over for a try off a rolling maul. Herath who had earlier missed an opportunity to add points off a penalty, made no mistakes this time to take a 7-0 lead.
The Royalists, who were underdogs for this fixture, opened their account in the ninth minute when their fly half Ovin Askey put over a penalty around 30 meters away from the post as they cut the deficit to 7-3.
Both teams fought really hard in this half and the Royalists showed a real desire of wining. Royal have been scoring so many tries off the rolling maul and it turned out to be their weapon once again when scrum half Ashok Wijeykumar crossed the try line in the 32nd minute. Askey was able to add extra points which saw them taking a 10-7 lead.
The Thomians showed no intentions of giving up as they continued to work the ball well and threatening to score and in the 39th minute they were awarded a penalty. Herath then added three points from the penalty to level the scores 10-10 at half time.
Royal started off the second half brightly creating some opportunities, but they were stopped from adding any points up until the 50th minute. They managed to score a try once again from the rolling maul as Asmir Fajudeen went over for a try converted by Askey.
In the 60th minute, the Royalists were able to produce another try again off a rolling maul as they sent captain and prop forward Nikhila Gunadheera to score their third try of the match. Askey made theconversion as Royal took a 24-10 lead.
Seven minutes later, S. Thomas' full back Mayon Jayawardane crossed the try line, but could not stop the Thomians tumbling to a shocking defeat.
(JS)