Trinity shock Royal at Pallekelle

Trinity winger Sachindu Wanasekera on the move  

• Trinity 13 points
• Royal 10 points

By Shamseer Jaleel

They always say do not under estimate a side when it comes to the crunch games that too at the blue-ribbon encounter, Bradby Shield. History proves that many weaker sides on that day have turned things around and humbled the better team. This happened between Trinity College and Royal College in the first leg of the 77th Bradby Shield encounter at Pallekelle last weekend when Trinity edged out a much fancied Royal outfit 13/10.

Royal looked a completely commanding side on paper and Trinity went in as under dogs but the home team were able to rattle the Royalist in the last 20 minute of the game through 13 unanswered points after trailing 10/0 down at the short breather.

Trinity did not have things their own way when they missed out on two easy kickable penalties plus a try a knocked on the line and lose out on a possible 11 points in the initial half while their visitors scored two early tries which rattled the young outfit. But they never gave up coming back in the second half and playing their hearts out in front of a packed Pallekelle Rugby Stadium.

For Trinity their forwards stood out led by Chamendra Dhanapala, Thisanga Dissanayake, Ravin Ilangaratne and Senul Alexander looking rock solid and their defence was of top class while in their nippy scrum half, Rushen Bandaranayake had an outstanding game. In the three quarter line made out of steel, Anuhas Kodituwakku looked a well-marked man while skipper, Attabb Manzil had an outstanding game.

Meanwhile for the Royal their skipper, Randul Senanayake had a grand game bot in defence as well in attack he split the Trinity defence all over in the early half while getting support from Shafeek and Calyanarathne.

Trinity missed out on early penalty in the 4th minute of the game when Shan Altaf missed out a kickable 40-meter penalty. Royal who looked a better side worked their three-quarter line to touch down through Philio Calyanarathne. Shimak Shafeek missed the difficult conversion. Six minutes later Shan missed another kickable penalty 30 meters out when Trinitians glimmer of hope started fading away at Pallekelle with disappointing faces from the home team supporters.

Then burly second rower Buwanaka Senanayake touched down in a forwards rush when Trinity defence was all over. Shimak Shafeek took too much time and missed out on the second conversion as well. Trinity missed out on the third penalty as well before the short breather.

After the turn around Trinity had early shocks when they worked their way through which looked a beautiful try but only to find out from the TMO that their winger, Lakindu Herath has lost control over it while diving towards the try line.

Royal started losing control of the game with their try scorer, Buwanaka Senanayake being Yellow carded and Shan outing over an easy penalty to cut the deficit to 7 points. Trinity number 8 Thisanga Dissanayake scored for Trinity when he powered his way. Althaf added the extras to level the scores at 10 for each sides. Royal started losing control as they started with handling errors and starting to concede penalties. Their strength of playing cohesive rugby in the later half became a dream when the Trinitian saved the best for the last 20 minutes when they put up a brave Lion hearted performances. But Royal still had opportunities to go ahead this time through Nabil Yeya he too missed out the penalty kick coming from the bench. Trinity forwards who displayed their hearts out played like real Lions received another penalty in the later part of the second half only to take the lead through Shan Penalty. But though the Battle is won war is yet to be won as the second leg will decide the fate of the trophy on 5 August with their game in Colombo.

Referee Ishanka Abeykoon

Trinity 1983 Rugby Lion former CR and FC and Kandy SC player and National XV a side representative Ashan Ratwatte was the Chief Guest.

Trinity won the Under-16 encounter played for Simithrarachchi trophy when they beat Royal 15/10.