U-19 Rugby: Royal beat Trinity 27-19 to retain Bardby Shield

Lock forward Sasitha Siyath could one day relate to his offspring on how he scored a hat-trick to lead Royal College beat traditional rivals Trinity College 27-19 at Pallekele on May 5, 2018, as the Bradby Shield made its way back to the shelves at Reid Avenue for yet another year.

Siyath played an anchoring role in a game that was expected to be a one-sided affair, scoring thrice for Royal, all at crucial points while Trinity did all what they could do to upset the apple cart. 

Royal posted four tries in total with two of them ending up converted in addition to an early penalty to sum up their 27 points. 

Trinity had prop forward Praveenda Wijethilaka as their star performer who scored two out of the three tries scored, and with two of them converted the hosts made up their 19 points. 

With Royal recording a gallant 39-7 win in the first leg played at the Royal Sports Complex a fortnight ago, the Blue and Golds proudly retained the Bradby Shield with an aggregate of 66-26, a clear margin of 40 points.

The predictions were proved otherwise from the style of play the Trinitians dished out from the first whistle of Referee Rohan Fernando, who controlled the game with a fine flow despite the wet weather. 

Fernando had very little trouble in conveying the players of the two teams of what 'to do' and what not to besides at three occasions when he issued three yellow cards -- two on Trinity and one on Royal. 

Royal never had it easy as Trinity made it a point to counterattack on almost all the moves made by their opponents. 

The hosts even barged into the Royal's 22 twice but failed to complete their mission, as Royal too played cautiously for almost 15 minutes. 

The clock just ticked the 16th minute when lock Sasitha Siyath made a charge to score his and Royal's first try and with fullback Dulan Gunawardena's failed conversion, the visitors led 5-0. 

The game had the same flow for another ten minutes as in it was at the beginning until Royal was awarded a penalty, which Gunawardena successfully put over to take his team's lead further to 8-0. 

Royal were gradually gaining momentum with intentions of aiming a bigger score, probably ahead of the feat of 88-0 they recorded in 2002. 

But out of nowhere came an attack from the Trinitians in the 31st minute and prop forward Praveenda Wijethilaka touched down. 

Following a failed conversion from Akitha Sakalasooriya, Trinity trailed 5-8. 

The expectations of a Trinity win was blooming with more attack coming in from the home team, but Royal utilising their forwards, scored through prop forward Induwara Bimsara in the 36th minute. 

With yet another failed kick Royal took the breather at 13-5.

The change of the ends had the same effect as the start, but Siyath did not take much of the time to give Royal the third try and his second, in the 41st minute. 

Gunawardena kicking ratio became 4 out of 2 with the conversion as Royal expanded their lead to 20-5, sensing a big win. 

Despite the scoreline Trinity continued on attacking for eight continuous minutes, while Royal too retaliated with perfection, until the home team was reduced to 14 with the sending off of Trinity No.8 Lennox Calyanaratne. 

However Royal failed to make maximum use of the 10 minutes their opponent was less a man. 

One minute after Trinity regained its full force, Royal lost lock forward Fadhil Adahan for ten minutes off a yellow card. 

Unlike their opponents, Trinity struck opportunistically twice within three minutes to trail just by a point, after two converted tries. 

Prop Wijethilaka made a virtual three-quarter move in the 61st minute with his second try to reduce the deficit to 12-20, while three minutes later, winger Vishwa Ranaraja made a clean gather to cover almost 40 metre, running  past a couple of Royalists to touch down under-the-post. 

Both tries were converted by Sakalasooriya. 

The Trinity supporters, largely fewer then the Royal supporters for obvious reasons, suddenly came alive as their team, who was sniffing a possible victory. 

It was a matter of a try or a penalty for Trinity, who were evidently out of contention of regaining the Bradby. 

But Sasith Siyath, put matters beyond doubt, by bracing his third and Royal's fourth, try. 

Fullback Maleesha Perera, converted as Royal expanded the lead to 27-19 and maintained to the end, despite Trinity's attempt to score in the remaining few minutes.