Royal College brought an end to St. Joseph’s unbeaten record when they triumphed 17-3 in a bruising Inter-Schools Under-20 ‘A’ Division League Rugby Tournament fixture played at Havelock Park yesterday.
The defending champions also kept their hopes alive of qualifying for the Super Round while collecting their points from one goal and two tries after leading 7-3 at half time while The Josephians managed only a solitary penalty.
Even then, the final scoreline would not provide a clear picture of how close this Group-1 game was as Royal scored twice during the dying moments to turn the match in their favour.
Until then, the game was in the balance as the two teams went into the last 10 minutes of the game with Royal enjoying a slender 7-3 lead.
The match will also be remembered for some of the wrong reasons with both teams receiving few yellow cards and severe head injuries that took a heavy toll on the players.
It was eventually Royal who held their composure and absorbed the pressure in this fascinating game to score two decisive tries in the last few moments through Danuja Samararatne and Hansika Hikgoda.
Until then, Royal were virtually in a shell and were pinned to their territory, but St. Joseph’s were unable to convert their territorial advantage and valuable possession into points.
The Joes of course, made a promising start as they fired across a 30-metre penalty as early as in the third minute of play through Dilhara Subash. However, Royal bounced back in their own style with a trademark try through their forwards with Rahil Wijesekera falling over from a rolling maul.
Yehiya added the extra points and Royal went into half time with a 7-3 advantage.