Royal move to top of points table

Thushan JAYASURIYA

Defending Champions Royal College Colombo moved to the top of the points table of the Singer segment one ‘A’ division schools rugby tournament with a smashing 38 -7 win over St.Anthony's College Kandy at the Royal Sports Complex on Saturday.The lads from Read Avenue scored six tries to earn a bonus point which helped them to edge out last week's table leaders St.Peter's College into second position.

The Royalists have obtained 27.50 from five matches while the Peterites have collected 27.00 points from the same number of matches. The Royalists who went in to the game without the services of skipper and star place kicker Arshad Jamaldeen and outstanding centre Damien Ratwatte scored two tries in the first half through winger Ijaz Bohoran and lock forward Wasim Bawa to gain a 14-7 lead at the breather.

They continued their assault on the Antonian goal line in the second half to score four more tries through prop Sachin Vithanga, centre Devin De Silva, winger Nimshan Jayawardana and lock forward Wasim Bawa with Rimzi Jamaldeen converting four of the tries which gave them a convincing win and helped them to remain unbeaten.

St.Peter's College helped by a superb display by fly half Dulaj Perera also scored a convincing 32 – 6 win over Science College to also remain unbeaten.

The lads from Bambalapitiya, who were without their skipper and star centre Dhanushka Ranjan took a 10 – 3 lead at lemons helped by a fine try by Dulaj Perera who added the extra points and also put over a penalty

In the second half, Johanne Rodrigo ans S.Borah scored unconverted tries for the Peterites, while Dulaj Perera put over four more penalties which gave him a personal tally of 22 points.

Trinity College Kandy, turned in a dazzling display of open rugby to score a runaway 62-7 win over Vidyartha College on Friday at Nittawela.

The Trinitians scored five tries in the first half through fly half Tharinda Ratwatte, prop Anuradha Karunathilake, winger Darshana Udalagama and full back Halique Wadood (two) with Thisila Karunathilake adding the extra points and Tharinda Ratwatte put over penalty to give the lions a 36-0 lead at the breather.

In the second half, skipper Kaneel Seneviratne(one), prop Mohomed Insaf (two) and flanker D.Aluvihare(one) scored tries to give them a grand win and remaining third place in the points table.

Isipatana College made amends for their defeat at the hands of Trinity College with a mammoth 111-10 win over lowly placed D.S.Senanayake crossing the opponents goal line on 17 occassions.

It was a fine performance by the Isipatana threes who ran the ball at every opportunity to punch holes in the DSS defence which helped them to remain in fourth place.