Trinity won the first battle, as the 1st leg of the 70th Bradby encounter ended up in favour of the boys from the hill capital 28-16.
It was expected that Royal would come hard at the Trinitarians who were the favorites going into the 1st leg and the first few minutes of the game royal made early inroads into the Trinity half until wing three quarter Lochana Giriagama spoilt the mood of not just the players but all supporting Blue & Gold on the day. Royal had created a four on three overlap on the short side of the field and the 1st receiver opted for a cut out pass which Lochana anticipated perfectly to intercept and score under the post. It was just two minutes into the game and not the start Royal needed.
This took Royal by surprise, so much so they seem disoriented on the field over the next few minutes which cost them another try. The second score for Trinity was off a pressure scrum and scrappy ball of the base but trust the skillful back line of Trinity to create a try, out of nothing. An off load in the tackle and simple hands helped Trinity to add another 5 points onto the score board through their full back Sanchana Shiek. And the skipper Tarinda ratwatte made no mistake with the conversion.
Unfortunately for Trinity, They could not keep the momentum on their side as unforced errors and their poor efforts at the set pieces did not help them to build on the early pressure they had created. Royal may have been rattled during the first ten minutes of the game but came back strongly especially through their forwards to dominate the scrums and the line outs. Trinity opting for a more expansive game helped Royal to obtain more possession and territory which helped them to create a few opportunities. Nevertheless both teams managed only three points each from the tenth minute to the 39th minute through their respective skippers, until Royal finally breached the Trinity defense to score through their full back and skipper Nimhan Jayawardena. The Trinity defense remained solid on most occasions depriving Royal an early opportunity of crossing the try line. Royal managed one more penalty to close the gap and went into half time trailing by four points 17-13.
After the resumption, Royal closed the gap to just one point with another penalty by Nimshan Jayawardena. Both skippers missed one penalty each during the game and had a commendable kicking performance although both players had mixed moments in their tactical kicking.
17-16 and both teams were guilty of being unable to build on the phases as countless unforced errors slowed the pace of the game. It was a clear tactic by Royal to exploit the weakness of the Trinity back three under the high ball and this on certain occasions worked well for the home team, although one wonders if retention of possession could have gone better for the Royalists. There were also instances where Trinity’s line defense was so fast the Royal back line was forced to kick. The defensive efforts of the Trinitians were led by their skipper Trainda Ratwatte as he drove his opponents back and denied them yardage. He also extended the lead to 20-16 through a penalty in 60th minute of the game.
Trinity were better at scrum time in the second half but the line out did not work for them at all. They squandered their own line outs and were shy to contest for the opposition ball. The leader of the forwards ought to have changed the call to try out a no: 6 line out for three quarters of the game which did not work even once. They probably needed to keep it simple and go for a short line out with the no: 2 and no: 4 jumpers been utilized more often.
Royal on the other hand needed to be more aggressive and organized in defense. Royal too failed to build on the phases and tire the Trinity defense. Royal in the second leg will have to be more tactical in breaching Trinity’s defense. Forwards for Royal were solid in the set pieces and were good in open play but they will have to be better in the 2nd leg. The back line was at times static and seemed to have run out of ideas. The back line was caught napping in defense on many occasions and were guilty of giving opportunity for the Trinity back line to run. If Royal is too keep their kicking game on which works at times, the chasers need to be right behind the back three for Trinity. The final try for Trinity which sealed the game for the visitors came through an aimless kick from Royal.
28-16 was the final score and both teams guilty of not building the phases. Trinity especially forcing passes when the ball should have been retained and secured for the next phase. Unforced errors slowed a game which could have been played at higher pace, Royal won’t mind this though as Trinity seems to have the edge over Royal in the fitness department. It was also noticed that Trinity’s replacements were more of an impact than the Royal replacements. The 2nd leg should be a better game if both teams play up to potential. Trinity is a team which has not reached optimum level of potential yet and Royal is known to be better fighters than they were at the first leg.
Referee Dimithri Gunasekera had a commendable game with negligible number errors considering the fact that he doesn’t have the luxury of referring to a video referee when in doubt, as it should be and it is in international games. If we are to play a Bradby with minimum refereeing mistakes we need a video referee. Not even an international referee has an error free game.
