Sheveen Premarathne scrum half breaks through

Loshika Wijekoon on the move

By Shamseer Jaleel

Trinity College put an  end to Royal College’s unbeaten run this season when they edged them out by 21 points (2 tries, 1 conversion, 3 penalties) to 20 points (2 tries, 2 conversions, 2 penalties) win in their Dialog Inter Schools Under 20 Rugby League encounter which concluded at the Royal Sports Complex yesterday.

At the short breather Trinity led 13/6.

Trinity College put up an excellent effort and ended their losing streak to Royal College who possessed a better team. Royal came into this game as a clear favoured team, plus being the defending champions of the Schools League. This put Trinity under a lot of pressure even before the kick-off but they handled the pressure very well. They never gave up and played according to a plan. 

They settled down early and looked a yard faster in the three quarters on attack. Their defence too was rock solid  not allowing the Royalist to sneak through easily. Trinitians only lapse was their line out throwing which was below standard which will need to be ironed out sooner than later as they will need to face Joes in their next outing. Aataab Manzil, Kovida Wickremasinghe, Zeshard Zakir, Shaveen Premaratne and Chamindra Dhanapala stood out for the Trinitians.

Royal on their part played well in patches. They failed to convert their territory into points, plus took time to settle down which was costly in the end. Only one threatening move they made through their three-quarter line which looked good but they opt to play with their heavy set of forwards. Nabeel Yehya, Pasindu Heshan and Hansaka Hikkgoda stood out for the losers.

Trinity missed an early 45 meter penalty kick in the seventh minute by their Full Back, Kovida Wickremasinghe. Royal centre Thavindu Saparamadu’s late charge on Aataab Manzil gave Trinity a penalty opportunity. Kovida put Trinity to a 3/0 lead. Eight minutes later, Anuhas Kodituwakku dummied his way for a brilliant centre’s try for the Up Country lads.

Kovida added the extras. Royal soon reduced the deficit through their full back, Nabeel Yehya penalty. Another Kovida penalty took Trinity 13/3 lead. On the stroke of half time, Nabeel Yehya who had an excellent outing put over another penalty for Royal.

After the turn around, Royal played a better brand of Rugby scored a superb push over try by their second rower Rahil Wijeskera in the later half. Nabeel added the extras to equalise scores at 13 a-piece. Kovida added another penalty to take Trinity 16/13. A charge by Hansaka Higgoda, the replacement scrum half with a Trinity clearance allowed Royal to score their first try. Nabeel converted to take a 20/16 lead.

With the game going into its last 5 minutes Trinity kicked deep into Royal territory and started attacking through their heavy set of forwards. Prop, Yasiru Ariyawansa went over for the winning try for Trinity.

Referee Dilum Deeshana had a grand game and controlled it very well.

Trinity will host the unbeaten Joes in their next encounter on 16 July at Pallekele.

No matches this weekend