Royal draw first blood, Trinity win junior games
Royal College staged a clinical performance to outclass traditional rivals Trinity College 34-17 in the First Leg of the 75th Bradby Shield encounter played at Pallekele last Saturday. It was the home team that opened the scoring with an unconverted try through centre Tevin Karunanayake to take an early 5-0 lead, but the visitors bounced back to equalise through skipper Thulaib Hassen in no time.
Royal then capitalised on their strength to expand the lead by 12-5 with a converted try from Achitha Radeeshan. Royal further expanded their lead through a penalty, which their kicker Dulan Gunawardena put over successfully to make it 15-5.
Just before the halftime, Trinity bounced back with a well-worked out try, which gave Dhiren Ratwatte the opportunity to cross the line and Miranga Subasinghe to make an easy conversion. The halftime was taken with Royal leading 15-12.
Soon after the turnaround, Trinity made a surprising move to touch down through Harsha Samarasinghe. With the failed conversion the home team regained the lead 17-15. But that was all Trinity could make as Royal gradually expanded the lead by 20-17 with an unconverted try from Lehan Gunaratne. They went on to capitalise further with a well knitted forward attack as Lehan Gunaratne scored his second try of the game. With Maleesha Perera putting over the conversion Royal’s lead was 27-17.
Kevin Samarasekara scored the final try for Royal and with Perera’s spot on conversion they sealed the first leg of the 75th Bradby by 34-17, and will walk on to the pitch of the Royal Complex next Saturday with an advantage of 17 points. Overall Royal scored from five tries and three conversions while Trinity managed to score from three tries and a conversion.
Despite their loss in the main game, the Trinity team was given a positive background after their two junior teams recorded wins. The Trinity Under-18 side, led by Kaveen Wijeyasena, dominated Royal with a 31-5 win in the first leg of their two encounter played for the Simithriarachchi Trophy. The Trinity forwards played a key role in their convincing win, which came from a tally of five tries and three conversions. Royal managed to score from an unconverted try.
The Under-16 match was a close battle, but Trinity eventually prevailed with a 5-0 win, where only an unconverted try was scored throughout the whole game. Trinity did their scoring in the first half, but the second half was evenly poised despite both teams failing to score.
The games were witnessed by a good gathering of spectators that belonged to all age categories and both genders. Old boys from both schools, their family members, school children, staff and supporters of both teams turned out in numbers at Pallakele. A similar surrounding with a bigger crowd is expected at the Royal Complex in Colombo, when the two teams meet again for the Second Leg of the 75th Bradby Shield on June 15.
- Pix by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi