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Royal back at their best again
Crush high riding Wesley by 24 points to nil.
By M. Shamil Amit
With a draw against Kingswood and a loss against St. Anthony's in their two previous games, Royal came back firing all cylinders to crush Wesley by 24 points (three goals, one penalty) to nil in their Singer inter-school rugby tournament match played at the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue yesterday.

The Wesleyites playing sans their regular fly half Omar Sharifodeen due to an injury he sustained in the game against Isipathana last week were no where near the their promised form and were never given a chance to make any moves being rattled by the speedy play put in by the Royalists. It was full back Shiam Bahudeen's game as he contributed 14 of the points that his side scored, he scored a try, booted a penalty and converted the other two tries. The Royalists playing fast and open rugby went into the lead in the tenth minute with the Royal pack pushing their way and second row Dhanushka Rajapakse going over for a try for Bahudeen to add the extra points.

The Wesleyites though getting opportunities to reduce the deficit were unable to make any headway as their players fumbled with the ball and were off colour making life easy to their opponents. It almost turned to a one sided game. The Reid Avenue boys increased their lead in the 18th minute when full back Bahudeen broke away from a 25 meter line out to score mid right which he himself converted. Three minutes later Bahudeen booted over a penalty to give the Royalists a healthy 17-0 lead when referee Dilroy Fernando blew the short whistle.

Though Royal supporters expected them to go on the rampage in the second half, it was not to be. In fact neither of the sides were able to make any headway making mistakes at vital stages. It was a ding dong battle and the Royalists too being unable to add any points until the latter stages of the game and with three minutes left for play, finally it was the man of the moment Bahudeen who initiated the try when he took over a pass from one his team mate passed it over to his skipper and winger Lakshman Dissanayake to sizzle past the Wesley defender to score under the posts giving Bahudeen an easy kick at goal and take the tally to 24-0 which they held on till the long whistle.

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