Royal College thwarted a monster comeback by S. Thomas’ College to record a thrilling 37 points to 33 win in their annual rugby encounter at Mount Lavinia yesterday.

Leading by 31 points to 7 at the breather, Royal seemed to have had the game wrapped up in the first half itself, but a shock awaited them after the turnaround when the host team woke up as if from slumber to plant a surge of tries and come close to having a sniff at victory.

S. Thomas’ ran down three tries and earned a penalty goal, all in an eventful second half, in response to Royal’s brilliant effort in the first half where they ran down five tries, from which three were converted by centre and place kicker Duminda Attygalle.

Royal left the Thomian defence in tatters right from the kick-off and had 21 points on the board by the 5th minute with tries coming from Shabir Mohammed, Nikila Senanayake and skipper Naren Dhason.

The Thomians seemed dead and buried when hooker Udara De Silva and Senanayake scored Royal’s fourth and fifth tries respectively. But Thomians had a moment to rejoice late in the first half when lock Janith Jayasuriya crashed in to score when the team earned a penalty.

Fortunes fluctuated in the second half the Thomian way with the team earning four tries with full back Jeremy Fernando being the pick scoring a sensational try. Fernando foxed the Royal defence with a deceptive run during which he changed direction and ended up under the posts.

The Thomians fought tooth and nail to search for that match-winning try but Royal grabbed possession in the last minutes of the game and also earned two penalties to seal victory.

"Royal definitely played better than S. Thomas’ in the first half. But we relaxed a bit in the second half where the Thomians almost had us, especially during a period of 10 minutes. Royal won because they never lost focus of the game," said Royal College Assistant coach Bilal Yusuf.

"I think S. Thomas’ produced one of the best comebacks in school rugby. All credit to the team for that. We need to work on the line out and tackling when we get back to practice on Monday," said S. Thomas’ College coach Jivan Gunatilake.

Royal College were awarded with the Michael Guneratne Trophy after the match.