Kingswood in stunning 29-7 win over Thomians

By Chris Dhambarage

RUGBY: Kingswood College delivered a stunning blow as they brought down S. Thomas' College by 29 points to 7 points in their Singer inter school under 20 Division One Group A league rugby tournament match played at Mount Lavinia yesterday.

The former champions playing their first game in Colombo collected their points from three goals, one try and one penalty after having led 15 nil at half time. S. Thomas' College managed to score just a solitary goal.

The Kingswoodians were able to grab the initiative following some real hard work from their dynamic set of forwards and backed up by the speedy three quarters. They had certainly done their home work and were well prepared to counter their opponents threatening moves with some good spoiling work.

But more importantly Kingswood College had a game plan and they rose to the occasion with a magnificent all round performance. They seem to have studied their opponent's strength and weakness well and were quick to pounce on any Thomian mistakes.

The Kingswood forwards played a well organized game and they made certain that they retain possession for a long period. As a result they were able to cause a great amount of damage to the opposition psychologically by earning more penalties.

Kingswood of course went into this important game with their heads high having notched up the second biggest victory in the current season where they routed home town rivals Vidyartha College by a massive margin of 67 points to nil last week.

They were able to carry on with that same form despite performing away from home and cruised to their fourth victory in the tournament.

They had plenty of good ball and every time they were able to add pressure on the opposition through some neat and clean collections in the line outs and set pieces.

Kingswood College opened scoring with a superb penalty from their reliable place kicker and fly half Roshan Weeraratne who in fact had an outstanding game while converting three of their four tries.

Kingswood scored twice before half time through centre Chamindu Bandara and their number eight and captain Gayan Rathnage who led the pack quite beautifully while also initiating several scoring opportunities.

Rathnage added one more try to his tally in the second half with winger Eranda Ranaweera scoring their fourth try of the match. Scrum half Ammangama scored a consolation try for S. Thomas' College.

Referee: Dilroy Fernando.