By M. Shamil Amit

Defending champions Royal met their waterloo as arch-rivals Trinity pulled off a thrilling victory by a single point with a score of 21-20 in the crucial Dialog Schools Rugby tournament encounter played at the Royal Complex ground  on Friday.

Having taken a 13-6 lead at the break, Trinity made up their points with a goal, a try and three penalties, as opposed to the two goals and two penalties scored by Royal.

Leading 16-20, Royal’s hopes were dashed in the dying stages when Trinity’s Shamendra Dissanayake’s uncovered try saw them lose their winning tag for almost three years and, in the process, the win saw Trinity chalk up their third successive win to maintain their unbeaten record.

The proceedings saw Trinity draw first blood through a penalty booted over by full-back Kovida Wickramasinghe in the 13th minute, and from there on they kept the pressure on the home side.

Trinity surged ahead nine minutes later, with centre Anushas Kodituwakku going for a try and Wickramasinghe increasing the lead with the conversion.

With both sides battling and sharing honours, the two full-backs kept the scores ticking over, with Nabil Yehiya booting over two penalties for Royal and Wickramasinghe one for Trinity within a space of 12 minutes before the short whistle was blown with Trinity ahead on 13-6.

The turnaround saw Royal come into the game with a different game plan and succeed in breaching the Trinity defence, with prop forward Rahil Wijeyasekera going over for a try and Yehiya making no mistake with the conversion to make the score 13 points apiece.

Royal had their opponents under tremendous pressure before playmaker and winger Hasnaka Higgoda sent his supporters wild to help Royal go into the lead with a try. Yehiya’s conversion, being perfect, saw Royal lead 20-16.

The Lions, undeterred, made breathtaking moves whilst puzzling the Royal defence before they succeeded with Shamendra Fernando going over for an unconverted try, which was sufficient for them to come out victorious with a wafer-thin margin of victory.

Referee – Dilum Deeshana