Royal in 39-22 win over Rajans
By Ranjan Anandappa
RUGBY: Royal powered by a fine forwards display spearheaded by
their number 'eight' Bilal Hassan recorded a 39 points (3 goals, 3
tries, 1 penalty) to 22 (1 goal, 3 tries) win over Dharmaraja in their
Singer schools rugby encounter played at the Royal College Sports
Complex grounds yesterday.
The game which was just drifting without much interest suddenly took
a dramatic turn as the Kandy school came back into the game during the
second half which injected life to a game which otherwise looked one
sided.
Royal opened scoring in the third minute of the match when Shailendra
Chandrasekera put over a penalty. In the 21st minute Dharmaraja's
Etipola failed to equalise missing a penalty.
Royal struck twice through their flanker Hasthika Bandaranayake who
scored off a maul and full back Shailendra Chandrasekera who put the
finishing touches to a three-quarter move while falling over by the
corner flag. Chandrasekera failed to add the extra points to both tries
as Royal led 13-0. Just before the breather the Rajans reduced the
deficit when off a quick short-tap flanker M. Mudannayake fell over for
an unconverted try to make it 13-5 at Lemons.
Soon after the breather Royal increased their lead when winger Nabil
Faizer scored by the right corner flag. Chandrasekera made a splendid
conversion to make it 20-5. They increased their lead when lock forward
Shehan Pathirana crashed through for an unconverted try. (Royal 25-5)
The Rajans hit back when A. D. Etipola broke away off a maul to score
a superb try which he himself converted. (Royal 25-12).
The Reid Avenue school increased their lead when their number 8 Bilal
Hassan who had a fine game crashed through for a try under the posts
which was converted by Chandrasekera.
The Rajans hit back once again through a try by Ratnayake which was
not converted (32-17). Number eight Bilal Hassan capped a fine
performance by scoring another try under the posts which was converted
by Chandrasekera. (Royal 39-17).
Just before the final whistle the Rajans reduced the deficit through
a Rajinder Kumar try.
Referee: Irshad Cader |
