Royal in 13-9 win, but Trinity retain Bradby Shield

By Ranjan Anandappa

Royal beat their traditional rugby rivals Trinity by 13 points (one goal one penalty and a drop goal) to 9 (three penalties) in their second ‘leg’ match at the Royal College Sports Complex grounds, but the coveted Bradby Shield remained in Kandy by virtue of Trinity’s first ‘leg’ win by 37/25 and the 12 points lead obtained two weeks ago in Pallekelle.

The match lacked the usual glamour and the fire power of the first ‘leg’ played in Kandy while Royal played with the power of their forwards while Trinity formed a fortress like defence to keep their opponents at bay.

Trinity opened scoring in the third minute of the game through a penalty put over by Tharinda Ratwatte. However, the three point lead did not last long as the Royal captain Rimzi Jamaldeen positioned himself well to drop a 35 meter kick. Royal dominated a good part of the first half through their robust set of forwards, in fact the home team used their forwards in all moves, but Trinity defended stout hearted to prevent Royal crossing their line. Muhammed Haniffa, Shuaib Jabbar, Dineth Karunaratne, Yasun Weerasuriya, Manusha Abeykoon, Keshan Peiris, Pasindu Perera and strongly built Shuayb Muthaliph played like terriers to dominate in the loose.

After Trinity who led 6-3, Royal had a good chance of being on par if they had taken the easy penalty awarded to them at striking distance, but they opted for the kick to touch. The first half was very much similar to the first ‘leg’ with a heavy load on the Royal ‘eight’ and the Trinitians using their backs mainly for defensive purposes.

For Royal Rimzie Jamaldeen put over a penalty to level the scores 6-6 and minutes later tried his luck in attempting to put over a forty two meter penalty which was unsuccessful. Trinity led 6-3 at half time. Soon after resumption Royal equalised when Jamaldeen made no mistake with a 30 meter penalty to make it 6-6. After fifty minutes of play both sides were trying to find their fluency and Royal still having faith in their forwards was trying to get the break through which they needed and gave a torrid time to the Kandy school in their territory.

Royal missed another scoring opportunity when Rimzi Jamaldeen opted a kick to touch instead of the penalty from mid-field and the ensuing line out which Royal won and the ruck formed saw Jamaldeen flinging the ball to winger Udesh Ranaweera who knocked on with the goal line staring at him. A few minutes later Trinity made a counterattack Thrinda Ratwatte fired over a 30 meter penalty from a difficult angle to give Trinity a 9-6 lead. During the dying stagers of the match Royal scored the only try through a typical forwards rush when burly Shuayb Muthaliph crashed through for a try and Rimzi Jamaldeen made a splendid conversion to make it 13-9 in favour of Royal at the final whistle.

Dilroy Fernando refereed.