Royal prevails 17/3 against Joes

By Shamseer Jaleel

Royal College, defending champions of the Schools League lived up to the expected high standard of rugby to beat St. Joseph’s College by 17 points (3 tries, 1 conversion) to three points (1 penalty) win in the rugby encounter which concluded at the Havelock Park yesterday.

At the short breather Royal led 7/3.

Royal displayed some cohesive rugby and clicked as a unit at the correct time for round two. They were lightning fast on the loose ball and in attack split the Joes line which was all over the Park. Joes had no penetration and their defence was well opened for the Reid Avenue lads to attack. In patches Joes played well but once again lacked the finishing touches. They had territory in the initial half but failed to convert in to points.

Royal scored through Rahil Wijesekera, Danuja Samararatne and Hasanka Hikkoda. With Nabeel Yehya converted one of them. For Joes their penalty was put over by Dilhara Subash.

Referee Ishanka Abeykoon

Royal has completed their five group matches while Joes will have one more match against Antonians in Colombo which they will need to win. Meanwhile, Trinity will need a bonus point win but still could fall short to move to round two as one of the top two teams.

Trinity College will be all out to end round one in the League on a winning note when they meet their group’s last placed Kingswood College at their Pallekelle Rugby Stadium today.

Kick-off is secluded at 4 p.m.