Royal fight back to grab Gunaratne trophy | Sunday Observer

Royal fight back to grab Gunaratne trophy

30 April, 2017
A Thomian player  being tackled by a Royalist  (Pic by Marlon Karunaratne)
A Thomian player being tackled by a Royalist (Pic by Marlon Karunaratne)

A great fight back with three tries within the space of 17 minutes late in the second half helped Royal to beat their traditional rivals S. Thomas by 31 points to 14 in their Gunaratne trophy rugby encounter played at Mount Lavinia yesterday.

The Reid Avenue boys collected their points from three goals and two tries while the Thomians scored two goals. Although the Thomians led 14-12 until the 59th minute of the match, Royal cut loose and planted as many as three tries within 17 minutes to become the worthy winners of the Gunaratne trophy.

It was a keen tussle for supremacy in the evenly contested first half. But it was Royal’s rich second half harvest that made the difference at the end. While scoring 19 points through two goals and a try in the second half, Royal did not allow the Thomians to do any scoring after the break.

S.Thomas’ gave Royal a testing time in the first half to take an exciting two-point lead at half time. But it turned out to be a different story after S.Thimas’ had taken an exciting 14-12 lead at lemons.

It turned out to be an exciting battle for supremacy neither side could not open scoring during the first 15 minutes of the game. But Royal broke the deadlock in the 15th minute with Center Janindu Dilshan scoring the first try of the match after a beautiful back division move.

Full back Shaqir Naufer added the extra points.S.Thomas continued to press the Royal line and were successful in finding the equalizer goal in the 21st minute as No.8 Cristian De Lile touched town in great style. Scrum half Dion Dias added the extra points to make it seven-all.

But the Thomian joy was short-lived as Royal regained the lead seven minutes later with an unconverted try by winger Shabith Feroz. But Nilufer missed the conversion.

The tussle continued as both sides made every effort to take an early lead. The Thomians regained the lead in the 40th minute as Flanker Harith Senanayaka scored the second try for the home team. Dion Dias was on target with the conversion as S.Thonas’ lead 14-12 at the short whistle of referee Irshad Carder.It looked as if S.Thomas’ were heading for a close win as the game had a

nail-biting contest until the 56 th minute of the game. But hat-trick of tries by Royal within the space of 17 minutes changed the complexion of the game entirely.None expected Royal to win by such a grand fashion but they breached theThomian defence thrice between the 59 th and 76 th minutes of the game, completely demolishing the expectations of Thomians. First of the three

Royal tries came in the 59 th minute of the game through winger Feroz. Naufer added the extra points to make it 19-14 as Royal took lead during the dying stages of the game.

That was not all. Royal crafted two more tries to make seal the match in style. Prop forward Rishmal Fernando scored Royal’s fourth try of the match in the 63 rd minute of the game. Naufer was cleaver with his third conversion as Royal extended their lead to 26-14. In the 76th minute of

the match, Royal scored their fifth try of the match and the third in the second half trough winger Yasis Rashmika. But Naufer was off colour on this occasion.

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