Royal outclasses Trinity at Bradby first leg

 Chief Guest Sriyan Cooray being introduced to Trinity

By Shamseer Jaleel

Royal College played a cohesive brand of running rugby to humiliate their traditional rivals Trinity College by 29 points (4 tries, 3 conversions, 1 penalty) to Nil at their first leg of the 76th Bradby Shield encounter which concluded at the Royal Sports Complex on Saturday.

At the short breather Royal led 10/0.

Trinity started off well by attacking in Royal territory but the home team’s defence was rock solid. They hardly missed any tackles. “Man to man” they took and looked rock solid in their defence. Royal took the-half time lead at 10 to nothing after Trinity failed no less than three easy penalty kicks within striking range.

Despite playing two man less in the later-half due to yellow card offense still Trinity could not breach the home team defence, Instead Royal scored during that period of time which gives a clear indication how much the Reid Avenue lads dominated the game. Trinity on the other hand continued in piling up with handling errors in tandem. 

Though they got territory advantage, they could not convert into points plus their place kicker was far below expected standard missing three sitter kicks in front of the posts just 25 m away becoming a laughing stock. Also, Trinity players were at the receiving end for changing positions in this vital game. 

Their centre Anuhas Kodituwakku was brought in as fly-half while regular fly-half Aaatab Manzil went in to his new position at full-back which left Kovida Wickremasinghe who was replaced only in the later-half plus their skipper Lithmal Moragoda too appeared to be not fully recovered from his injury. So, these two players Anuhas and Aatab were in new positions and Royal started to check them fully which went in the home team’s way. 

Randul Bandara, Nabeel Yehya and Danuja Samararatne played well for the Reid Avenue outfit. Trinity fly-half Anuhas Kodituwakku failed to place the ball twice and tried a short tap later on which was disallowed by the referee. This was the start for Trinity. 

Royal full-back Nabeel Yehya who had a grand game was spotted with the first penalty kick to take the lead. Hooker Dhanuja Samararatne who had a grand game after missing the match with Isipathana scored Royal’s first try. Nabeel was on target to take the 10/0 lead at the short breather.

Both Danuja Samararatne and Philio Calyanaratnewere Yellow carded for offence early in the later-half. 

Their acting hooker Naveen Perera taking the replacement opportunity broke away from the maul to touch down. Nabeel added the extras to take a 17/0 lead. Trinity lost their replacement full back, Kovida Wickremasinghe was yellow card while returning after the offence time Danuja touched down for his second try. Unusually Nabeel missed the conversion, to everyone’s surprise. Royal put the icing on the cake with their last try through Thineth Gamage. Nabeel added the extra 2 points.

Towards the end of the game Royal lost their cool with two red cards. Calyanaratne was yellow carded on the same offence as earlier, which automatically turned into a Red card, while Thevindu Saparamadu who crossed from Rajans was red carded for a dangerous tackle on Trinitian Anuhas Kodituwakku.

Referee was Ishanka Abayakoon.

There were no junior encounters played for the very first time.

Royal 1983 skipper, former CR and FC, National Sevens representative and former CR and FC President Sriyan Cooray who was the Chief Guest cannot ask for a better performance from his young lads from his school boys.

The second leg will take place on 3 September at Pallekele Rugby Stadium.