Kingswood clinch Singer Shield

Beat Trinity by 12-5 in league championship decider:

S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr

Kingswood College, Kandy crowned themselves with glory when they regained the Schools Singer Shield after a lapse of two years when they beat Trinity College by 12 points (1 goal, 1 try) to 5 (1 try) in the final match of the Schools Singer Shield Division One Segment ‘A’ rugby tournament played at the Bogambara stadium in Kandy yesterday before a large crowd. At half time Kingswoodians led 12-0.

It was a game of missed opportunities for the lions who started off well and dominated play in the first ten minutes with the ball coming hardly into Trinity territory.

But when play did come inside Trinity territory the Kingswoodians took full advantage of it to smother their opponents.

The Kingswoodians dominated overall both the scrum and line outs and loose played, appeared to be equally shared with flashes of individual brilliance by the Lions which did not bear fruit.

Kingswoodians opened scoring in the 11th minute when they mounted pressure through their forwards which ended in skipper and No. 8 Gayan Ratnage going over near the left post.

Fly half Roshan Weeraratne added the extra points.

Kingswood led 7-0.

The game now see sawed from one end to the other and the game looked evenly poised with both teams displaying some good rugby.

But in the 25th minute the Kingswoodians were awarded a free kick deep inside Trinity territory Kingswood’s fly half taking the short tap used the forwards to fluent their opponents defence which ended in prop Mohamed Iswan Saleem scoring mid left.

Fly half Roshan Weeraratne failed to add the extra points Kingswood led 12-0.

After the turn around, a terrific tussle between the forwards was witnessed with the lions more on the offensive as they had to close to gap of 12 points to lift the title. But good defence put up by the Kingswoodians kept the marauding lions at bay for some time.

But in the 20th minute the ball came out of the maul Trinity’s way and flanker Idiris Omar brushed aside two defender to touch down by the right corner flag. Winger Kennan Armstrong failed with a difficult kick at goal. Trinity College closed the gap to 5-12.

This try infused more vigour into the lions as they needed 7 more points to bridge the gap and lift the Singer Cup on bonus points.

But the Kingswoodians displayed the strategy of survival and fell back to defend their lead in the period of play which followed and they did it successfully.

Asela de Silva refereed.