After last week’s poor performance against Isipathana (61-15) Dharmaraja turned tables on the more organised Kingswood 24 points (4T 2C) – 17 points (3T 1C) at the Schools Rugby league game which was also the William Weerasinghe trophy which is annually played between the two schools.
The match was played at Bogambara stadium which is known for producing nail biting matches and this one proved to be the same as the game swung to and fro like a pendulum.
Dharmaraja made early inroads into the Kingswood defence but they held firm for a while, finally giving away the first points after letting Oshada Kulupana score in the left corner of the field. Oshada Ekanayake failed at the uprights. (05-00)
Kingswod quickly replied with a brilliant set play try which was scored by their Fly half T.P.L.S.Ranaweera who made a 40m meter run to score under the posts to which he himself added the extras. (07-05)
Kingswood who were on a roll at this point of the game made threatening runs towards the opposition half which finally earned them the second try of the match which was scored by Hooker M.N.Tharaka after setting up some good phases. The conversion by Ranaweera went astray.
Soon after, L.Pathirana was sent to the naughty boy chair for a high tackle on the Kingswood winger, the one man advantage did not even last a second as the Kingswood winger was sent to the sin bin to cool of due to another high tackle. The game then started to spice up as both teams chose to kick the ball rather than work the ball to the opened corners of the field which Dharmaraja learnt and executed in the second half which reaped those results.
Photo Album – Dharmaraja College vs Kingswood College (Schools Rugby 2016)
On the brink of half time Chanlindu Wijesinghe scored a try on his own after breaking the defence for a 50m sprint to the line which again Ekanayake failed to convert.
Half Time Dharmaraja 10 (2T) – 12 (2T 1C) Kingswood
The second half started with Kingswood giving away a penalty for hands in the ruck which they failed to capitalise on, soon after this the Rajans were again in Kingswood territory breaking away from the defence stepping the defence apart was Chamika Perera who eventually completed his 60m run to complete the try. Gihan Ishara who was handed over the kicking duties after half time added the extras making it 17-12.
This made Kingswood work harder and before it was too late they equalled the score from Shenesh Kaushika who stole the ball off a Dharmaraja line out to score with the momentum driving him over the line. Ranaweera failed to convert again to make the game interesting for the people who had come to watch- 17 all
For a good 20 minutes, both teams ran back and forth with no points being shown for the effort. Dharmaraja eventually broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute, where the big number 8 of the Rajans Romesh Anandaraja muscled his way to a try which the kicker Gihan Ishara happily booted through the posts making the score 24-17
With the group wide open with only Isipathana and Science unbeaten in the short two games played by all schools, have a chance of making it to the next round of the tournament. Dharmaraja would find a confidence boost in this result while the Kingswoodians will be determine to win all the remaining matches to make a statement.
Full Time Dharmaraja 24 (4T 2C) – 17 (3T 1C) Kingswood.
ThePapare Player of the match – Romesh Anandaraja
 nobody would have thought that the Rajans could upset an organised Kingswood side that played well against the St.Peters although they lost (38-18).){kind=link}