Dialog Schools Rugby Knockout: Royal, Isipathana make it to semis

Royal’s second-half rally proved to be too much to handle for S. Thomas’

Isipathana powered their way to victory over St. Joseph’s (Pix by Kushan Pathiraja) 

By M. Shamil Amit

A second-half rally by Royal was too much for arch rivals S. Thomas’ as they cruised through to an easy 25 points to 5 win in the quarter-final encounter of the Dialog Schools President’s Trophy knockout tournament played at Javelock Park yesterday.
Royal, having held on to a slender 7-5 lead at the breather, made up their points through a goal, three tries and a penalty to the solitary try scored by S. Thomas’.
The first session of play saw the two teams sharing honours before the Thomians succeeded in opening the scoring in the 12th minute from an unconverted try scored by centre Arik de Silva.
From there on the game slowed, and there were missed opportunities of scoring by both sides before Royal succeeded in breaching the Thomian defence in the dying stages with Disas Pathirana going over for a try and Simak Mohamed making the conversion for them to lead and go into lemons on 7-5.
The second half too saw the two sides falling short of scoring, and it took a good 17 minutes for the first scoring to be done, which was by Royal from an unconverted try scored by second row Nimsara Praveen, and Royal buoyed increased the tally two minutes later with Disas Pathirana going over for his second try of the match, but the conversion was kicked astray again.
Royal increased their lead ten minutes away from the long whistle with winger Kavin Ekanayake going over for an unconverted try before Simak Mohamed booted over a penalty in the dying stages to give Royal a comfortable 25-5 victory to advance to the semi-final.

Isipathana prevail in scrappy game
Isipathana prevailed with a 22-point-to-10 win over St. Joseph’s in another quarter-final encounter of the Dialog Schools President’s Trophy knockout played at the Royal Sports Complex ground yesterday.
Isipathana led 7-3 at lemons and accumulated their points through two goals, a try and a penalty to a goal and a penalty scored by St. Joseph’s.