Royal, Trinity to clash in three First XV games this season
The rivalry between Royal College and Trinity College will reach new heights this year as never before with the two teams set to play as many as three First XV games during the current Inter-Schools Rugby season.
In a major shakeout to their 2022 rugby calendar, Royal and Trinity will play the annual Bradby Shield (two-legs) encounter separately in addition to the scheduled Schools Under-20 League Tournament fixture.
The first of these three blockbuster games will take place on Friday (8) at the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue with the tournament encounter where both schools are vying for a top two finish in Group-1 to qualify for the Cup Championship segment.
This confrontation has all the ingredients to produce an enthralling game of rugby as both teams have already got off to a good start this season while winning their opening two games of the league tournament in style.
In fact, Royal are currently on top of the points table after having recorded bonus-point victories against St. Anthony’s College (22-12) and Kingswood College (53-0) respectively.
Trinity are currently placed third in the points table as they are trailing by just a solitary point from the group leaders after their two exciting victories against S. Thomas’ College (20-13) and St. Anthony’s (25-18) respectively.
“Earlier, we used to consider the Under-20 League Tournament match as the Bradby Shield first-leg but this time we decided to play the traditional matches separately,” an official from Royal College told the Daily News yesterday.
“We have two other important trophy matches against Isipathana College and St. Peter’s College as well but both schools are not playing in our group,” he stressed.
“After considering all these areas and our commitment with the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association, we decided to play the tournament match against Trinity and the Bradby Shield separately,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Bradby Shield encounter will return after a lapse of two years with the first leg scheduled for August 20 at the Royal Sports Complex.
The second leg of the Bradby Shield will be played on September 3 at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.
Royal are the holders of the Bradby Shield after having emerged victorious in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively while Trinity last won the Bradby Shield way back in 2014.