74th Bradby Shield Trinity Lions receive Royal mauling

Janidu Dilshan scored two brilliant tries for Royal College at the 74th Bradby Shield encounter

• Royal 39 points
• Trinity 7 points

By Shamseer Jaleel

Royal College dominated the first leg of the 74th Bradby Shield encounter when they outclassed Trinity College for a 39 points (3 goals, 3 tries, 1 penalty) to 7 points (1 goal) win at the Royal Sports Complex over the weekend.

At halftime Royal held a commanding 19-0 lead.

Trinity struggled mightily in the initial 15 minutes of play with Royal running circles around their hapless defence to blow them into oblivion with a six-try blitz. The home team played according to a pattern and they were simply outstanding, exposing a glaring gulf in quality between the two teams. 

Trinity opted to keep Warren Weerakoon for the latter portion of the first half but this did not make any difference to the score line as he was a well-marked man. The Trinitians lost out on deputy skipper Naveen Rajaratanam due to injury.

Royal’s skipper Shabith Feroze and company were simply unstoppable and were never put under any sort of pressure by Trinity. Meanwhile, Trinity, despite doing their best in defence to withstand Royal’s relentless offensive onslaught, were laboured and devoid of ideas on offence. 

Whenever Trinity made it into Royal’s half they were never able to convert their good work into points, leading to more pressure being piled on them. Royal on the other hand always scored whenever they came into Trinity territory. 

A comeback for Trinity in the second leg of the Bradby in two weeks looks highly unlikely barring a minor miracle but they will look to save face and at least fight for a win on their home turf of Pallekelle.

Royal fullback Dulan Gunawardena and Trinitian Akitha Sakalasuriya each missed easy penalties in the early stages of the game. Royal drew first blood in the 16th minute of the game when Sasith Siyath went over for Royal’s first try. Trinity missed one more penalty through Sakalasuirya which could have given them the lead but Royal, who had other ideas, sent through Janidu Dilshan for a try. A difficult conversion was made to look easy by Gunawardena. A try from prop forward Bimsara Induruwa and a Gunawardena conversion gave Royal a decisive 19-0 at halftime.

After the turnaround, Royal continued their dominant play, exhibiting frightening pace and precision to carve open Trinity’s defence at will. As Maleesha Madumeven scored the next try for Royal, Trinity hit back by sending their dashing winger Vishwa Ranaraja, who had a grand season, over for their first try. Trinity skipper Avishka Shiek was on target with the kick at goal to reduce the deficit to 24-7. 

However, Dilshan’s second try and a conversion by Gunawardena tilted proceedings embarrassingly in Royal’s favour at 31-7. 

The final Royal try by Himantha Hirushan was a close call as the try looked a yard forward but the TV replays offered no clear evidence of an infringement on the play. 

Royal still had time for one more penalty, with Fadhil Adhan pushing the total to 39 points to Trinity’s solitary goal.

If the Royalists are equally imperious in the second leg of the Bradby they will severely threaten the record scoreline of the 2002 Royal outfit led by Zulki Hameed which produced 83 points over both legs of the encounter. The second leg will be played at the Pallekelle Rugby Stadium on 5 May. The referee for the first leg was Dinka Peiris.

Royal also beat Trinity in the Under-18 encounter played for the Simithrarachchi Trophy.