Trinity in superb 34-11 win
Thushan Jayasuriya
Trinity College Kandy came up with a superb display to register a
grand 34 – 11 win over Royal College Colombo in the first leg of the
“Bradby Shield” encounter played before a large crowd.This victory not
only put them in line to retain the prestigious trophy for the second
successive year but also shattered Royal's unbeaten record.
The lads from Kandy made use of the opportunities which came their
way to cross the opponents goal line. But the lads from Reid Avenue
failed to make use of the possession won by their hard working
forwards.Royal paid the penalty for playing a half-fit Arshad Jamaldeen
in the pivotal fly half berth which prevented them from working their
three quarters.He has still not fully recovered from the injury he
suffered in the Josephian match and left the field only in the 27th
minute of the second half . 16 year old Royal full back Bhanuka Gamage
also failed to live up to expectations and the Reid Avenue School had to
field Damian Ratwatte as a second Full Back to collect the high ball and
kick to touch.
Royal's lack of fitness was very much evident in the last fifteen
minutes of the game when they conceded three tries including a gifted
try when they failed to touch down in defence after having dominated the
first 20 minutes of the second half. Trinity Fly Half Tharinda Ratwatte
dropped a goal from 20 metres out in the fifth minute and five minutes
later Trinity's Scrum Half Sanjaya Somasiri noticed Royal's Full back
Gamage was not in position and kicked ahead which saw speedy winger
Dharshana Udalagama collect the bouncing ball on the follow through to
score under the post with Karunathilake adding the extra points.A few
minutes later Royal's Rimzi Jamaldeen fired across a 35 metre penalty.
But then Karunathilake made no mistake with a 20 metre penalty.
Royal fought back through their hard working forwards and scored a
push over try through Eroshan De Alwis with Rimzi Jamaldeen missing the
conversion and they missed a good chance of scoring again when just
before the breather one of the forwards knocked on off a five metre
short tap and at lemons the scores read 13 – 8 in favour of Trinity.
After resumption, Royal fought back through their power packed
forwards but could not penetrate the solid Trinity defence although they
were in the “Trinity 25” for more than 20 minutes.But the lions came
back storming in the last 15 minutes to score thrice . First Fly Half
Tharinda Ratwatte sneaked through from a 25 metre scrum to score near
the post to give Karunathilake an easy conversion.Three minutes later,
Winger Dharshana Udalagama followed an attempted penalty by
Karunathilake which strucked the cross bar and rebounded and managed to
get his hands to the ball in the in-goal area before the Royal defenders
with Karunathilake adding the extra points.
Four minutes before the final whistle, Winger Shanthana Sheikh dashed
through 20 metres to touch down by the corner flag which was converted
by Karunathilake with a splendid kick. Just before the final whistle
Royal's Rimzi Jamaldeen made no mistake with a 20 metre penalty. |