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Michael Gunaratne trophy:
Late try seals nail-biting win for Thomians
An injury-time try by winger Naveen Helakakankanamge helped S.Thomas’
College Mount Lavinia to edge out traditional rivals Royal College by 21
points to 15 in their inter-school rugby encounter for the Michael
Gunaratne trophy played at Royal College Sports Complex grounds, Reid
Avenue in Colombo yesterday.
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Jubilant Thomians after beating Royal (21-15) (Pic: Sudam
Gunasinghe)
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The winners collected their points from three goals while Royal
scored a goal, a try and a penalty.
Back-to-back
Led by hooker Pandula de Silva, the Thomians regained the Gunaratne
trophy after three years. It was their third successive win for the
season after back-to-back wins against D.S. Senanayake College by 40-6
and St. Joseph’s 32-3.
The Thomians who last beat Royal 29-20 at Havelock Park under fly
half Devin Jayasinghe in 2013 were heading for another defeat as Royal
took a close 15-14 lead when the game entered the injury-time.
Then came a fine display of the Thomian grit as they stormed into the
Royal 25 with determination. Following a tremendous effort they set
their three quarters in motion with winger Helakankanamge falling over
for that match-winning try. Ashwarth Herath made the conversion, just
seconds before the long whistle of referee Irshad Cader.
Lemons
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Thomian centre Ashwantha Herath trying to break through from
two Royal players in their Singer Division A inter-school
League Rugby match played at the Royal Sports Complex, Reid
Avenue yesterday.S Thomas’ beat Royal by 21-15 (Picture by
Sulochana Gamage)
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The Reid Avenue boys were unlucky to lose the key game after
dominating play until almost the end of full-time. They led 10-7 at
lemons.
It was Royal who took an early lead when they opened scoring in the
20th minute as hooker Hamza Riza scored off a forwards rush. Full back
Ovin Askey added the extra points to make it 7-0.
S.Thomas’ soon found the equalizer as centre Herath breached the
Royal defence to touch down and went on to add extra points to make it
seven-all. However, Royal regained the lead a few minutes before half
time through a 35-metre penalty put over by full back Askey.
S.Thomas’ came back into the picture in the 19th minute of the second
half as Helakankanamge scored his first try. Herath made the conversion
to give S. Thomas’ a 14-10 lead.
However, Royal fought back to take a close one point lead with only
eight minutes away from the long whistle. Royal’s Hamza Riza fell over
for an unconverted try that gave the Reid Avenue boys a thrilling 15-14
lead.
Warning
The Mount Lavinia school team, led by hooker Pandula de Silva, is
enjoying one of their finest seasons in the current Singer division one
league tournament under experienced Samoan coach Tevita ‘Laga’ Tulagaese.
They sounded an early warning this season when they won the
inter-schools rugby Sevens trophy after a lapse of more than one and a
half decades, beating the hot favourites Isipathana in the final.
Despite yesterday’s loss, Royal continues to lead in the series with
28 wins to the Thomians’ 19 with five matches ending in draws. |
