Royal retain Guneratne Trophy with 34-24 win over Thomians

By Ranjan ANANDAPPA

Royal retained the Michael Guneratne Memorial Trophy for the seventh year in succession when they beat their traditional rivals S. Thomas', Mount Lavinia by 34 points (two goals, four tries) to 24 (three goals, one penalty) in their 50th rugby encounter at the Royal College Sports Complex grounds yesterday.

Royal virtually kept their hopes alive with their points which they gathered in the first half (24-3) as they showed signs of wilting under pressure due to lack of fitness midway in the second half as the Thomians exploited fully and came strongly by scoring three converted tries through hooker Hasthimuni (2) and scrum half Randika Peiris (1) with Devin Jayasinghe adding the extra points with his unerring kicking.

It was Royal who dominated the entire first half with their indefatigable set of forwards spearheaded by Eroshan de Alwis, Wasim Bawa, Shuhaib Muthaliph, Yasun Weerasuriya, Kaveen Perera and number 8 Madusha Kulatratne. Their fierce forwards play driving into rucks and mauls completely rattled the Thomians who were depending heavily on their three quarter line.

Royal had won their previous seven matches and lately have been displaying lack of fitness in their last outings. They took the field without their regular skipper and fly half Arshad Jamaldeen, full back Damien Ratwatte and flanker Andrew Siriwardene due to injuries. Royal opened scoring in the third minute of the match off a maul which went loose and Nimshan Jayawardena touched down after a fine run. Rimzi Jamaldeen who had a good match started off with a fine conversion to add the extra points.

The Thomians reduced the deficit with a twenty metre penalty by fly Half Devin Jayasinghe. Seven minutes later Royal full back Bhanuka Gamage made an interception in mid field and dashed through 50 metres to score near the post. But Rimzi Jamaldeen missed the easy conversion (Royal 12-3).

In the 29 minute off a maul in the Thomian 25 Royal's fly half Rimzi Jamaldeen made a break and slung out a long pass to winger Sachin Unamboowe who fell over for an unconverted try by the corner flag to make it 17-3. On the stroke of half time off a five meter scrum Royal's scrum half Ravishan Dassanayake sneaked through to touch down by the corner flag and Rimzi Jamaldeen's spectacular conversion made it 24-3 at lemons in favour of Royal.

In the first minute after resumption Royal's hard working lock forward Shuaib Muthaliph scored by the corner flag after center Nimshan Jayawardene made a 40 metre break before he was brought down a few meters from the goal line. Jamaldeen missed the conversion. (Royal 29-03).

The Thomians fought back gallantly and prop Hasthimuni scored push over try by the corner flag and Devin Jayasinghe made a splendid conversion and the score read 29-10. But the Reid Avenue school struck back when acting skipper Eroshan de Alwis powered his way off a line out to fall over for an unconverted try to make it 34-10.

Then the Royal's lack of fitness was exposed by the Thomians who scored twice through scrum half Randika Perera and prop Hasthimuni both of which were converted by Devin Jayasinghe and the Royalists ran out winners by 34 points to 24.

Referee: Pradeep Fernando.

Royal also bagged the M.T. Thambapillai Trophy winning the Under 18 match by 34 points (two goals, four tries) to nil.