A right ROYAL 'Bradby' win

Royal tame Lions in their own den 34-17:

By S. M. Jiffey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr.

Royal forwards produced a magnificent second half rally to crush Trinity by 34 points to 17 in the second leg of their 66th Bradby Shield rugby encounter played before a capacity crowd at Bogambara Stadium, Kandy yesterday.

With the one-point lead they enjoyed after a 38-37 thriller in Colombo a fortnight ago, Royal retained the coveted Bradby Shield with a convincing margin of 18 points.

Yesterday's humiliating defeat was Trinity's fifth consecutive loss at Bogambara Stadium as the host side. Royal collected their points from three goals, two tries and a penalty while Trinity had one goal and two tries.

It was a right royal win for the Reid Avenue boys who produced a rich harvest in the second half after trailing 12-17 at half time. Royal were in full control of the game in the entire second half and ran down as many as five tries in the match of which three were converted.

Trinity entered the second half with a slim six point overall lead after Royal were trailing 12-17 at 'lemons'. But the heavy and mobile Royal pack produced some fast and open rugby in the second half to cross the Trinity line thrice.

Royal College won the Bradby Shield for the 30th time by an aggregate of 72-54. By a margin of 18 points. Trinity have won the Shield 35 times with one encounter ending in a tie.

Before the commencement of the match both teams were introduced to the chief guest and Trinity rugby captain of 1972, Athula Unantenna who came over from Australia and also the Guest of Honour, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, himself a fine ruggerite.

Trinity College have themselves to blame for this big defeat and they lost out in the scrums and line outs especially in the second half and their loose play was not impressive with their contests in the rucks hardly stopped the marauding Royalists.

Royal could have opened scoring almost with the kick off but stand off Arshad Jamaldeen's kick was off target.

With play switching from the end to other the first 20 minutes saw no scoring.

In the 21st minute of play Trinity College three quarters moved the ball from right flank to the left and a good pass from stand off Rehan Weerakoon saw winger Akila Dissanayake made a screeching run and score far right.

Centre Kanchana Ramanayake added the extra points. Trinity 7-0 and they had wiped out the single point lead the Royalists had from the first leg.

But a few minutes later Royal College hit back when their winger Rimzy Jamaldeen collected a pass from Duminda Attygalle to touch down. Arshad Jamaldeen failed to add the extra points. Royal 5-7.

In the 30th minute Royal College took over the lead when their three-quarters were seen in action and winger Rimzy Jamaldeen plunged over mid right and this was goalled by Arshad Jamaldeen. Royal 12-7.

Trinity College touched back into the game when in the 30th minute of play winger Akila Dissanayaka shield his way to score far right and this try went unconverted.

In the 35th minute of play Trinity College scored their third try through prop forward Mohamed Nizmy following a forward charge. This try too went unconverted. Trinity led 17-12 by the lemons. But the second half saw the Royalists virtually over run the Lions through some power play by their forwards supported by the back division to beard the lions in their den.

First Arshard Jamaldeen missed a penalty in the 6th minute of second half.

But they got their acts together and in the 10th minute full back Chamara Dabare joined the three quarters to form the overlap and score far left. Fly half Arshad Jamaldeen added the extra points with a brilliant kick at goal. Royal had wrested the lead 19-17.

In the 21st minute Arshad Jamaldeen converted a 35 metre penalty to increase Royal's lead to 22 - 17.

Royal kept adding pressure and Trinity defence was in latters. A forceful forwards attack saw No 8 Shehan Pathirana fall over far left and Jamaldeen added the extra points. Royal 29-17. In the dying stages of the game centre Muhasheen Faleld scored far left and this try went unconverted.

Dilroy Fernando refereed.

Trinity College won the Junior game for Simithrarachi Trophy 24-13 but Royal won this trophy too by an aggregate of 41-39 having won the first leg 28-15.