Trinity end 10-year drought

•  Trinity 25 points
• Royal 23 points

By Shamseer Jaleel

Trinity College regained the coveted 78th Bradby Shield second leg  with a fantastic long-range penalty kick from 55 meters by their fly half, Shan Althaf,  to secure a magnificent 25-23 win over Royal College at the Pallekelle Rugby Stadium last weekend.

At the short breather, it was Royal who led 20-13.

The last Bradby Shield series win for Trinity was in 2014, under the captaincy of Tarinda Ratwatte, at the same ground, thus ending a 10-year drought. Trinity won the first leg in Colombo 17-16.

Both teams dished out good rugby with the Royal three quarters showing a lot of promise in the earlier half. Their forwards were also mobile in their approach. Meanwhile, Trinity looked threatening to score with some beautiful three-quarter moves, with their full back joining the line in attack which split the Royal defence several times, though they failed to score in the end. Led by Thisanga Dissanayake, the Trinity forwards were omnipresent. They were quick to secure loose ball and were mobile in their approach.

Royal fullback Yuvan Pathirana kicked in to the Trinity territory and successfully chased his own kick to touch down, drawing first blood for the Colombo outfit. Nabeel Yahiya was on target with the kick at goal to take an early 7-0 lead. Trinity reduced the gap soon afterwards through a penalty from Shan Althaf.

Royal launched several attacking moves and almost scored, but Trinity skipper Thisanga Dissanayake saved the day for the Lions with some superb cover defence. Another penaltyfrom Shan reduced the gap to a one-point lead for the Reid Avenue lads.

The next move, Trinity fullback Yevan Hulangamuwa joined the three-quarter line and chipped ahead which gave his speedy centre, Minula Yaddehige, to touch down. Shan added the extra 2 points, giving Trinity the llead for the first time in the game at 13-10.

Apenalty from Nabeel Yahya, followed by an Ayyash Shiyam try and an Idris Farook conversion, took Royal into the lead at 20-13 at the short breather. 

After the short breather two more penalties from Shan took Trinity closer to Royal’s score at 19-20. However both Nabeel Yahya and Shan Althaf exchanged penalties, making it to 23-22 in  favour of Royal.

Shan Althaf who had a grand kicking game was on target with a superb 55-meter penalty not only sealing the win for Trinity but also regaining the Bradby Shield after 10 long years. 

Referee was Brayden Hudson (Australia).

 Trinity’s 1985 rugby skipper Manoj Jayatissa was the Chief Guest at the second leg.

Trinity beat Royal 17-5 in the Under-16 encounter played for Simithrarachchi Trophy and won on aggregate.