Royal retain Bradby Shield

• Royal - 13 points
• Trinity - 8 points

By Shamseer Jaleel

In a game which was played under wet and difficult conditions, Royal College retained the 73rd Bradby Shield by defeating Trinity College by 13 points (2 tries, 1 penalty) to 8 points (1 try, 1 penalty) at the Royal College Sports Complex.

At the breather the scores were level at three points apiece. 

In total the Reid Avenue outfit’s aggregate score across both legs was 35 points against the Trinitians’ 25 points. 1980 Royal skipper Sujantha Kumar gave away the trophy to winning Royal College Captain Ovin Askey.

Trinity played well in the initial half, settling well in Royal territory, but could not breach the Royal defence which stood as strong as a rock. Trinity scored first through an easy 25-meter penalty put over by Lashan Wijesooriya. Though Royal were behind they looked the better side, playing as a team with their forwards. 

Royal equalised through a Mahomed Shakeer penalty to level the scores. Under wet conditions both three quarters handled the ball well with Royal’s Shabith Feroze outstanding and threatening with his lightening pace while Diluksha Dange stood out for Trinity along with Rajaratnam on offence, splitting the opponent’s defensive lines multiple times.

After the turnaround things were not so good for Trinity. Second row forward Sasitha Karunaratne went through a shell-shocked Trinity defence. But once again shockingly Shakeer’s kick was not accurate. 

Trinity did not have an answer for Royal’s rolling maul. They were pushed and controlled by the Royal forwards who played a well controlled technical game. Finally Trinity scored a try through hard-working forward Avishka Priyankara. But the kick at goal was missed. The game was refereed by Rohan Fernando. Royal with this win take their Bradby tally to 32 wins against Trinity’s 29 with two games ending in ties in 1992 and 2016.  

This was a morale boosting win for Royal Head Coach Sanath Martis, who ended with a double after Royal clinched the Singer League as well as the Bradby Shield.