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Friday, 23 April 2010

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Royal out to give a repeat display

Chris Dhambarage

Royal College with four top coloursmen and several other senior players in their ranks are determined to produce a repeat performance when the new inter school rugby season gets underway this weekend.

Royal made a tremendous impact last year where they lifted the Singer League title while maintaining an unbeaten record under the captaincy of fly half Naren Dhason.

This time they will launch their defence for the title with a fixture against Prince of Wales College Moratuwa on Saturday at the Royal College Sports Complex, Reid Avenue.

This is in contrast to the last year’s tournament where they were up against the traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College in their very first outing of the season at Mount Lavinia.

But still they were able to produce one of their best performances in the Royal, Thomian history by winning the contest eventually by 37 points to 33 in a close encounter. They also retained the Michael Gunaratne Trophy for the fourth successive year.

In fact Royal almost created history as they came close of erasing the previous highest total in the series which is 39-3 set up in the 2002 season under the captaincy of Zulki Hamid.

That turned out to be the perfect start for the Royal team as they went on to register some of the most fascinating victories during a highly successful inter school rugby season.

This year of course their match against S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia is scheduled during the latter stages of the season in between their annual fixture against Trinity College Kandy.

But their biggest achievement last year came when they regained the Bradby Shield after a lapse of two years while completely outplaying their arch rivals Trinity College Kandy in their annual encounter. Royal took the first leg by a convincing margin of 22 points to 12 points and produced even a better display to win the return encounter by 31 points to 15 points.

They followed up this victory by recording a smashing 43 points to 17 points victory over the reigning league champions Kingswood College Kandy. The most significant feature in last year’s performances was that Royal were able to win every match by a huge margin which was a clear indication of their total dominance.

Some of their other major victories in last year’s tournament came against St. Anthony’s College (39-6), St. Peter’s College (30-10), Mahanama College (54-13) and Dharmaraja College Kandy (30-3),

Another feature in last year’s team was the fact that even some of their reserves were equally good as their regulars and they were able to make their appearance at any time of the game and produce a match winning performance for the side.

All those talented players who failed to find a permanent place in the final XV have now got the opportunity to showcase their potential during the current season.

They are certain to make a huge impact as they will be joined with four other coloursmen who had performed exceptionally well in the recent past.

This time Royal College will be captained by dynamic centre three quarter Duminda Attygalle. Winger and Sri Lanka Youth cap Chamara Dabare, flanker Shehan Pathirana and full back Mushin Faleel are the rest of the coloursmen in the team.