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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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Royal give Thomians the blues - Retain Gunaratne Trophy by Lal Gunesekera Royal won the Michael Gunaratne Memorial Trophy for the fourth consecutive year when they scored an unconvincing 18 points (1 goal, 1 try, 2 penalties) to 8 (1 try, 1 penalty) win over traditional rivals, S. Thomas' in their schools' rugby match at the Royal College Sports Complex yesterday. Royal led 15-3 at half time. This was Royal's third consecutive win (beat Wesley 24-0) and Ananda (39-5) after losing 13-14 to St. Anthony's and just managing to hold onto a 10-all draw with Kingswood. They did not play as well as they should have, and after so much of territorial advantage managed to score only two tries, and just one penalty in the second session. The Thomians came up with a better performance in the first 10 minutes of the second session and did well in patches, but were guilty of messing up with their passes and basics too at certain stages. After losing three consecutive games (Trinity, Wesley and Ananda), the Thomians fared much better to beat Isipatana and with Quintin Israel to assist with the coach, they should fare much better as the season progresses. The best try of the game came in the second minute with an exchange of passes between full-back Bahudeen and Royal skipper Lakshman Dissanayake (right winger) which ended with the latter touching down under the posts for the former to have an easy conversion. (Royal 7-0). Six minutes later Bahudeen fluffed a 30-metre penalty, but in the 16th minute he formed the overlap to score far right. He missed the difficult conversion (Royal 12-0). Four minutes later, Bahudeen, fired across a simple 20-metre penalty (Royal 15-0), but missed another 35-metre penalty three minutes later. Then the Thomians reduced the lead through a 35-metre penalty by Samarasinghe. After the 'turn around', the Thomians scored through winger Samarasinghe who failed miserably with the conversion when he slipped whilst kicking the ball (S. Thomas' 8-15). In the 13th minute Royal increased their lead to 18-8 through a simple 20-metre penalty by Bahudeen to put the issue beyond doubt, although Thomian No. 8 Rajapakse made a terrific break in a bid to score. Dilroy Fernando refereed. Royal won the under-17 game by 27 points (1 goal, 4 tries) to 10 (1 goal, 1 penalty) after leading 17-3 at half time. |
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