The Singer League Rugby encounter between Royal College and St. Joseph’s College took place on the 23rd of April at Longden Place. Royal has not lost to St. Joseph’s in over 15 years. The conditions were perfect and the stage was set for a thrilling encounter.

From kickoff the Josephians showed a lot of aggression and determination and matched Royal’s outstanding forward pack up front. The pressure they applied resulted in three points to put Royal behind in the early stages of the game. The Royal forwards replied with a perfectly executed rolling maul which saw Ayesh Maduranga go over for the first try of the match. Deputy Ashok Vijekumar made no mistake with the conversion setting the score at 7 – 3.

The Josephians who looked to play a territorial game, which included a lot of kicking, managed to get Royal in their defensive 22 and once again converted pressure into points by scoring their first try. The fly half converted and the score moved to 7 – 10.

 St. Joseph’s further widened the scoreline with a try against the run of play. The fly half converted again and the score was brought up to 7 – 17.

A penalty successfully converted by Ashok Vijekumar was closely followed by a set piece try by the hosts which further extended their lead after a successful conversion to 10 – 24 at lemons.

The second half saw the game turn in Royal’s favour. They showed great spirit and took possession of the ball which in turn gave them a lot of opportunities of which many they converted successfully. Just seven minutes into the half yet another rolling maul saw hooker Azmir Fajudeen go over the line for a much needed five pointer. However, the conversion was unsuccessful (15 – 24 to SJC).

The St. Joseph’s fly half who was very accurate with his kicking bisected the posts with a drop goal to further extend St. Josephs’ lead to 15 – 27. Both teams were brought down to 14 players as the referee awarded a yellow card each.

The Royalists, feeling the pressure, turned on the heat with some support from a few replacements. Ayesh Maduranga scored his second try of the evening through a strong effort in fringe attack. The tough conversion went astray and the score stood at 20 – 27 with ten minutes to play.

The fear of losing saw unmatched determination by the boys in Blue and Gold throughout the last ten minutes as they finally secured a hard earned try scored by Nabeel Mohamed right under the uprights to give Ashok Vijekumar and easy conversion which he executed successfully tying the scores that thereafter remained unchanged ending the match in a draw.

This thrilling encounter was arguably one of the best of the season and was Royal’s last game before the much awaited Bradby Shield Encounter.