Kingswood edge out Royal - 19/18

SM Jiffrey Abdeen-Kandy Sports Corr

Unbeaten Kingswood College scored a wafer thin 19 points (two goals, one try) to 18 (one goal, one try, two penalties) win over Royal College in their Singer Under-20 League rugby match played at Bogambara Stadium yesterday. The winners led 14-6 at half time.

Kingswood opened scoring when fly half and skipper Asela Wijesinghe followed the three-quarters to score near the posts and added the extra points to make it 7-0.

Royal closed the gap through two penalties by skipper Nimshan Jayawardena to make it 7-6.

Then in the 35th minute, Kingswood took play deep into Royal territory and No 8 Asela Weerasekara scored far left and Asela Wijesinghe added extra points to make 14-6 at 'lemons'.

The Royalists dominated the most of the play in the second half, through their forwards which scuttled the Kingswood's play. A kick ahead by Kingswood fulback S Seneviratne was followed by No 8 Asela Weerasekara who scored by the left corner flag and the conversion was missed (Kingswood 19-6)

The Royalists kept attacking and once again their forwards showed much punch in their attack resulting in hooker Supun Warnakulasuriya scoring by the right corner flag. Conversion was missed by Nimshan Jayawardena. (19-11).

The Royalists kept attacking unsettling the Kingswoodians with their power play and it was once again hooker Supun Warnakulasuriya, who scored two minutes later by the right corner flag and Nimshan Jayawardene made a splendid conversion to make it 18-19.

Last 10 minutes, Royal kept attacking and Kingswood had to defend stoutely. In the last three minutes of play, Kingswood were able to move into Royal territory, but they could not score.

Referee Dimitri Gunasekara.