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Trinity draws
first blood
– wins first leg 24/12
64th Bradby Shield rugby encounter
 By M. Naushad Amit
Trinity laid the foundations for a unique double of regaining
the Bradby Shield and also emerging inter-school Division IA
league champions when they won the first leg tie of the 64th
encounter beating Royal by 24 points to 12 at the Royal College
Sports Complex yesterday.
The victory retained their position at the top of the league
table with only Kingswood standing in the way. The two schools
meet next Saturday at Pallekelle in what could be the ‘decider’
of the schools championship.
Trinity collected their points through two goals and two tries
against Royal’s one goal and a try. At the breather Trinity led
14-7.
Royal coming into the game as hot favourites after their
stunning win over the Peterites last week drew first blood after
three minutes from the first whistle with a try off No.8 Bilal
Hassen who broke out from a maul inside the scoring line.
Duminda Attygalle converted it into a goal to take an early lead
similarly to last week. The Royalists made use of their early
scoring advantage to invade the under pressure Trinity territory
constantly. But the visitors defended well enough to hold Royal
and a sudden breakthrough which came off the boot of the Trinity
full back changed the game when the Royal backline failed to
collect the ball. Winger Vishwajith Wijesinghe took the ball and
sprinted his way to plant a try under the post. Winger Kenon
Armstrong added the extra points. In the 15th minutes, two
minutes after the first try Trinity’s winger Armstrong received
the ball from a perfect line work to score their second try. It
was converted by Armstrong himself. Royal tried hard to cut down
the deficit but by the end of the first half it was Trinity who
were leading 14-7.
As the second half took off Trinity missed a golden opportunity
of scoring another try which was missed by scrum half Abdul
Hameed. But it was recovered when Trinity’s match winner
Armstrong got the ball for the second time after a perfect ball
work-out and added another try in the far right corner of the
field for the score to swell to 19-7. Armstrong was obstructed
by the
 Royal supporters when he tried to convert. He was
attacked with objects thrown at him and the game came to a short
standstill. After interference by the match officials, the Royal
team and the Royal principal and vice-principal, the situation
came under control, but Armstrong failed to add the extra
points.
Royal tried hard to penetrate the Trinity defence. It seemed
that team work slipped out from their game plan as every single
player was trying for a breakthrough of his own. No.8 Hassen
played a gallant role in Royal’s efforts adding more points to
their total but at times he received very little backing from
his team mates. Trinity’s substitute winger Lasantha
Samarasekara enjoyed his ten minute appearance of the game when
he got hold of the ball off another perfect line work to score a
try. Trinity was comfortably placed 24-7 with 15 minutes of play
left and Royal tried out their best to put pressure on the
opposition. Their efforts were rewarded to some extent when
Hassen broke off from a maul to score his second try of the
game. Priyantha Gunaratne handled the game perfectly.
In the Second XV game played for the ‘Simithiarachchi Trophy’,
Royal beat Trinity by 13 (2 tries and a drop goal) to 5 (1 try).
At half time the winners led 8-5.
****
Anthonians
registers season’s first win
St Anthony’s College secured their first win of
the season when they trounced their home town rivals Vidyartha
College by 34 points to 11 in their Singer League inter-school
rugby match played at Nittawela yesterday.
The Anthonians collected their points off three goals, two tries
and a penalty, while Vidyartha retaliated with a try and two
penalties. At lemons the Anthonians led 10-8.
For the winners it was their winger Chanaka Gunaratne who
spearheaded the attack with two tries. Scrum half Imad Riyal,
left winger Kelum Manapperuma and lock Dilan Wanigasekara scored
a try apiece.
For Vidyartha it was C Thilakaratne who scored the solitary try
which M Wijeratne converted.
Referee: Mohamed Irshad.
- (Mariks)
****
Kingswood
outclass Rajans 26/9
Hafiz Marikar,
Kandy Correspondent
Kingswood College came out with a solid effort to outclass arch
rivals Dharmaraja College by 26 points to 9 in a Singer league
inter-school rugby match played at the Bogambara Stadium
yesterday.
At the breather Kingswood led by a huge margin of 19 points to 3
in a battle between the Rajan forwards and Kingwood three
quarters.
The lads from Randles Hill managed to accumulate as much as
three tries and a goal while the Rajans could muster just three
penalties.
Skipper and number eight Gayan Ratnage scored two tries that
generated after two dashing moves down the line. Scrum half
Mohamed Afzal and winger Kasun Wijesuriya added two more tries
to give them a further boost. Fly half Roshan Weeraratne put
over three conversions to add six points to the total.
For the Rajans it was their centre Indika Wickramanayake who
kicked the three penalties to target for the Rajans to salvage
some pride.
Referee: Dinka Peiris.
****
Football
Maldives wins SAFF final
Muqthar Nasir scored off a corner kick, three
minutes before the final whistle to give Maldives a splendid 1-0
win over experienced India in the final of the 7th South Asian
Federation Football (SAFF) championships played under lights at
the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.
Both teams were equally matched for the final encounter and it
was not until the closing stages of the game that Maldives
managed to squeeze out a goal to emerge champions for the second
time in the competition.
Technically Maldives were the better team although India had
experience on their side. On their way towards winning the
championship Maldives beat hosts Sri Lanka 1-0 in the semi-final
and yesterday India by the same margin. A keen spectator at the
final was the Maldivian president Mohamed Abdul Gayoom. The
final was controlled by Nafees Abdul Wahab of Malaysia. (Mariks)
*****
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