OLD THOMIANS' RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION

The former champions playing their first game in Colombo collected their points from three goals, one try and one penalty after having led 15 nil at half time. S. Thomas' College managed to score just a solitary goal.

The Kingswoodians were able to grab the initiative following some real hard work from their dynamic set of forwards and backed up by the speedy three quarters. They had certainly done their home work and were well prepared to counter their opponents threatening moves with some good spoiling work.

But more importantly Kingswood College had a game plan and they rose to the occasion with a magnificent all round performance. They seem to have studied their opponent's strength and weakness well and were quick to pounce on any Thomian mistakes.

The Kingswood forwards played a well organized game and they made certain that they retain possession for a long period. As a result they were able to cause a great amount of damage to the opposition psychologically by earning more penalties.

Kingswood of course went into this important game with their heads high having notched up the second biggest victory in the current season where they routed home town rivals Vidyartha College by a massive margin of 67 points to nil last week.

They were able to carry on with that same form despite performing away from home and cruised to their fourth victory in the tournament.

They had plenty of good ball and every time they were able to add pressure on the opposition through some neat and clean collections in the line outs and set pieces.

Kingswood College opened scoring with a superb penalty from their reliable place kicker and fly half Roshan Weeraratne who in fact had an outstanding game while converting three of their four tries.

Kingswood scored twice before half time through centre Chamindu Bandara and their number eight and captain Gayan Rathnage who led the pack quite beautifully while also initiating several scoring opportunities.

Rathnage added one more try to his tally in the second half with winger Eranda Ranaweera scoring their fourth try of the match. Scrum half Ammangama scored a consolation try for S. Thomas' College.

It was one-way traffic at Mt. Lavinia as the marauding lads from Kandy – Kingswood inflicted a huge 29 points ( 3 goals, a try and a penalty) to 7 points (a goal) defeat on S. Thomas’ in their schools’ segment ‘A’ clash, yesterday. It were the winners who led at 15-0 at breather.

Kingswood made their intentions very clear from the first whistle and went on the offensive. Their tactic paid off as the home lads got bewildered and started committing basic errors.

So much so, they were able to put points on the board in the 15th minute through a penalty conversion done by second centre Roshan Weeraratne who wore his kicking boots tight right through the game.

Ten minutes later the visitors breached the Thomian defence for the first time through their first centre Chaminda Bandara. Weeraratne added the extra points and the visitors went 10 up and promised that there would be more.

A while before the lemons it was the turn of the Kingswood winger Ranaweera to show his prowess thus giving the finishing touches to a very successful line move.

This time Weeraratne failed with the conversion, but they were happy while biting on to their piece of lemon with a lead of 15 points to nothing.

The Thomian half time discussion was telling and they did come back pushing to plant a try through their vice captain and second rower Devaan Hallock to which full back Thammanagama added the extra points. Kingswood 15 – S.Thomas’ 7.

However the Thomian joy was short lived. This time the Kingswood skipper and second rower Gayan Ratnage proved of what he was made by planting two more tries to which Weeraratne added four more points to have a final score line read at 29-7.