Trinity College Kandy under 18 team won the first leg of the Simithriarachchi trophy beating Royal College 34 – 07 at the Royal College Sports complex yesterday.
The match which kicked off at 3 p.m. just a ahead of the main event; The Bradby shield had the young blood of Royal College and Trinity College battling it for the Simithriarachchi trophy.
The trophy which is currently in the hallows of Reid avenue was a trophy to commemorate an ardent master in charge; Mr. T.Simithriarachci. Both teams take this game seriously as this is the first trophy or prize they taste against their counterparts. It’s a sort of a warm up for the supporters and the players alike. To these young under eighteeners it’s the breeding grounds to the first fifteen and to a spectator it’s a means of getting their throats warmed up and ready for the big game and also getting a glimpse of the next generation of players.
This year’s U18 game saw a decent crowd gather at the sports complex and at the Bloomfield grounds at the Bradby Fiesta where the game was telecasted live. The Royalists in their blue and gold and Trinity in their red and white jerseys marched out for battle and it was a battle in deed with both teams displaying good rugby.
Trinity broke the shackles first by scoring through Sajjana Sangasinghe who broke through and scored a delightful try which was converted to put on 7 points on the board for the young men from the hills. It was a rally of tries and goals for the Trinitians as the Royalists seem to gather up and settle in to the game.
Ayesha Edirisinghe scored with some clean passes and support from his team mates which was cleverly booted to add another 7 points. It was try after try there onwards for the Trinitians, leaving Royal paralyzed by the Rugby dished out by the Kandy lads.
At the end of the first half which was 15 minutes, the game being played for 30 minutes, the Trinitians seemed to be cruising along and it looked like calm waters ahead. Royal had no clue of how to stop the carnage by these young lion cubs. They made too many mistakes and they seemed to have “butter fingers”, dropping the ball, knock-ons and lose passes.
Half time score – Royal 00 TCK 24
Trinity college kept on scoring and it was a dream game for little Sajjana Sangasinghe who scored his second, cleverly hitting space to go over the line. Royal finally scored off the pack mauling to go over the line and to be put over the uprights by Tahiru Gunasekara to avail a nil defeat.
Trinity College was on a rampage throughout scoring with masterful line work and grinding through Royal territory through the pack. Trinity College definitely looked the stronger side on the day and looked to play attacking rugby from the very start of the game. Royal college made silly mistakes and they eventually paid the price for their unforced errors.
Royal did give it their all but Trinity College just ended as the superior side and they will go into the second leg of the trophy in Kandy 2 weeks from now and will look to dominate the Royalists in their own den and regain the coveted trophy in the misty hallowed halls of the school on the hill.
Full time score – Royal 07 – TCK 34 (RC; 1 G – TCK; 2 G 4 T)
