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Royal bashed again
Lions on the prowl after four long years
By Shamseer Jaleel
Trinity prevailed. They were out this season to accomplish a mission. The mission was to bring back the Bradby Shield to Kandy which they missed for four long years. That was the story of the 61st Bradby Shield encounter that came to a conclusion at the Royal Sports complex. Last evening Trinity who beat Royal by a margin of 36-6 in their first leg at Bogambara two weeks ago proved that it was no fluke by stomping to a 33 points ( four goals and a try) to 7 points ( a goal ) win.

At Lemons the winners held the lead at seven points to nothing. It was tale of simple superiority. The more the game went on the more that Trinity proved what a good combination they were. At the initial stages Royal came out with some spoiling work and did go into the Trinity territory, but they lacked the finishing touches and were well marked by the Trinity defence who held on to their task and cleared whatever threat that Royal posed. Royal skipper Varun Wijewardena played well with very little support from his three quarters. He gained the much needed territorial advantage through his booming touch kicks. At the same time Trinity’s play maker fly half Pushpakumar was a treat to watch. Whenever he was in possession he was like a wound-up doll and danced his way through the foxed Royal defence time and again.

After the initial hiccups, Trinity coming into the Royal territory for the first time in the 12th minute of the game when national youth player and number 8. Imalga Maddumapatabendi who broke off a five yard scrum to score . Pushpakumara added the extra points and Trinity went 7 up.

With the turn around, referee Dilroy Fernando sent one of the Trinity propforwards S. Manikkam to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Royal scrum half Chammika Sandaruwan and Royal making full use of this opportunity barged over to score off a rolling maul through propforward Malith Hettiarachchi. Scrum half Chammika Sandaruwan converted and the game was on par at 7 all.

Trinity three quarters had to blame themselves as and when fly half Pushpakumara fed the golden ball they had number of handling errors. The next Trinity try came in the 11th minute of the second half when they too used their superior weight to plant a pushover try through skipper B.N.R. Fernando off a line-out. Pushpakumara missed a difficult conversion.

Ten minutes later No.8 Maddumapatabendi was at it again to plant his second try for the match. He won the ball through loose play and brushed aside a few Royal defenders to score a magnificent try mid left for Pushpakumara to add the extra points. Two minutes later came the best piece of rugby for the day. The Trinity fly half Pushpakumara on receiving the ball mid-way jinxed through almost the entire Royal defence and passed the ball onto full back D.I. Jayawardena to fall under the posts. Pushpakumara added extra points and Trinity led at 26-7.

By this time the Trinity machine was at full throttle. In the last minute of the game reserve winger Anojan Balasubramanium joined the melee by planting yet another try and converted it himself to finish a Trinity rugby season that they would remember for a long time more to come.

Trinity regained the Bradby Shield after a 4 year wait. Their last win was in the year 2000 when David Luchow’s Trinity side won the shield. This is the highest aggregate by the “Lions’ at 69 to 13.

The chief guest yesterday was the 1963 Royal captain Manik Jayakumar.
Trinity won the Summithrarachchi trophy when they beat Royal in the under 17 game by 15-5.

Under 16
Trinity held Royal to a 15 all draw.

Under 14
Trinity beat Royal 14-7
Under 12 Royal beat Trinity 21-0

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