All over bar the shouting? Bradby second leg
Royal College players and supporters must be understandably upbeat about their prospects at the 75th Bradby Shield second leg against Trinity College, which takes place at the Royal Complex on Saturday. A comprehensive 34-17 win last Saturday has raised visions of a fifth successive win in the series.
Royal will eye another Bradby win next week
Going back around forty years, it will be seen that whenever Royal scored big in the first game, they invariably carried away the coveted shield. In 1979 Royal won 36-0 and 25-6. 2002 was a disaster unmitigated as the Colombo school triumphed 39-0 and 44-0. Two years later, Royal prevailed 41-6 and 16-0. Damith Dissanaike’s team must have had hopes of transient glory after the first leg ended 38-37. But those hopes were dashed by a subsequent 34-17 loss.
A few years back (2015), Isuru Rangala’s team succumbed 22-23 in the first game, only to be cut down 49-0 in the second. This is why Murad Ramzeen’s warriors of 2011 have a special place in the minds of Trinitians. Having lost the first leg 25-33, they stormed back in magnificent fashion to take the shield with a 40-5 stunner.
Talking of the Pallekele game, it could be said that the better team on the day (and over the truncated season) won. Despite the total of 51 points scored, there wasn’t much dynamism. It was a stop, start affair. There were few constructive moves. The two best tries of the game were from breakaways. They were not the result of creativity, but of opportunism. One sensed that both teams were ‘Micawber-like’, waiting for something to happen.
Until the last ten minutes or so, the Trinity pack held their opponents. The strategy they adopted to prevent Royal from playing their usual game, worked. It was in the last quarter that the Blue and Gold boys were able to dominate. They looked the fitter side, endurance-wise. Royal was more organised. Trinity was not consistent and did not use the possession they gained effectively.
Trinity skipper Reshan Bandaranaike played superbly. How Trinitians young and old must have wished for one, or two more “Bandas”. Ratwatte endeavoured to follows his skippers example and played with a lot of heart. Geeshapa Kulatunga did not perform as expected. Centre Harsha Samarasinghe, who has made it a habit to pull out a rabbit from a hat, did so once more. His effort was heart-stopping.
Thulaib Hassan, the Royal skipper, had a very good game. He was all over and even lent a hand in defence. His example made his team play as a unit and galvanised them into action.
Shrewdly, Royal did not use the Rolling Maul in the first half. They kept it up their sleeve. When they felt extra pressure in the second half, they pulled it out and it helped to ease the situation.
Two goals and a penalty are all that Trinity need to achieve parity. But an exuberant Royal team, that knows they are on the cusp of a record setting Bradby run, are not going to stand by idly while their lead is being whittled away. Ay, there’s the rub!