CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Royal College have ended the 2023 Inter-Schools Under-19 rugby season in a spectacular manner. On Saturday, at Mount Lavinia, they powered their way to an emphatic 26-6 victory over the traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College.
Royal also further extended their dominance over their opponents in this series and went on to retain the Michael Gunaratne Memorial Trophy for the fifth successive year.
The current ‘A’ Division League Tournament runners-up added another silverware to their cupboard this season having earlier clinched the coveted Bradby Shield over Trinity College and the Major Milroy Fernando Memorial Trophy against Isipathana College.
This was another masterclass performance from the hard-working Royal forwards as they ruck and maul to near perfection to score four splendid tries while completely outplaying their opponents.
Overall, the lads from Reid Avenue had a memorable season as they recorded six wins out of their eight matches in the league tournament including two back-to-back wins in the Super Round segment.
The other significant feature in Royal’s performance this season was that they conceded only seven tries to the opposition during the entire season as their methodical defensive structure proved to be the backbone of their success.
And quite fittingly, their robust number eight and Skipper Randul Senanayake was in the limelight for the last time in his illustrious schools rugby career finishing with a hat-trick of tries.
Senanayake has been a tower of strength for his team and has done the bulk of the hard work while turning out to be an excellent ball carrier, line-out jumper and a tough customer in defending his goal line.
Senanayake scored the first of his three tries shortly before half time and followed up with back-to-back tries after the break to set the stage for another comfortable victory as Nabil Yehiya gave another fine performance with three conversions.
