Royal College’s rugby team pulled off a pulsating 29-3 win over Kingswood College in the curtain-raiser of the inter-school League championship at the Royal Sports Complex yesterday.
It took Royal a few anxious moments in the first half to get their act together after Kingswood surged into a 3-0 lead through a penalty in the opening minutes.
Taking the field after a half time lead of 7-3 Royal wasted no time in piling up the points when Kingswood’s defence failed to collect a chipped kick from which the home team scored their second try to take a 14-3 lead.
Fifteen minutes before the end Royal put the issue beyond doubt through their third try followed by another in the closing stages of the game as they finished a fine work-out.
Royal’s defence stood firm and on no less than six occasions within the space of four minutes held back an attacking set of Kingswood forwards who fell inches short of scoring each time they looked like going over.
Royal unsuccessfully tried a rolling maul in the early stages of the first half which did not work but they had plenty of options to keep at bay the Kingswood defence while themselves crashing through the opposing team’s defences on numerous occasions.