Dazzling display of rugby at Royal-Thomian

The Royal-Thomian rugby encounter has always produced rugby of a very high standard and it was no exception when these two traditional rivals clashed in the curtain-raiser of the schools Under 20 Rugby Tournament at Mount Lavinia on April 24.

Both teams turned in a dazzling display of open rugby with the three quarters making the maximum use of the ‘good ball’ which came their way by running the ball at every opportunity, which resulted in ten tries being scored in the match.

The Royalists spearheaded by skipper and fly half Naren Dhason came up with a stupendous performance in the first half to pile up 21 points in the first ten minutes and by half time had taken a commanding 31-7 lead.

But it was a different story in the second half. The Thomians motivated by their coach Jeevan Gunatilleke with their superior fitness thanks to their trainer D. U. M. Jayatilleke came up with a marvellous display to outplay a thoroughly unfit Royal outfit.

The Thomian ‘threes’ gave a superb display to breach the Royal defence on several occasions. The Thomian full back Jeremy Fernando had the honour of scoring the best try of the match when he collected a kick by a Royal defender and side-stepped and dummied his way past several defenders for over 50 metres to fall over for a glorious try under the posts.

The Royallists were unable to last the pace due to lack of fitness while the three quarters gave a woeful display of tackling and it was substitute winger Shailendra Chandrasekera who fired across two penalties to give Royal a thrilling 37-33 win.