Royal vs Trinity: schools rugby rivalry that transcends barriers
The Bradby Shield will return after a lapse of two years as the traditional rivals Royal College and Trinity College will resume their rivalry with the first leg of the 76th encounter scheduled for Saturday at the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue.
The two teams have figured in some fascinating rugby over the years and the stage is set for another blockbuster clash following their exciting game in the Inter-Schools ‘A’ Division League Tournament last month..
In fact, Trinity will have a slender psychological advantage going into this important clash after having won that League Tournament fixture by a solitary point (21-20) at this same venue.
Even then, the history is in favour of Royal as they are chasing an elusive fourth successive Bradby Shield success having emerged victorious in 2017 (35-25), 2018 (66-26) and 2019 (47-41) respectively.
The 2019 Bradby Shield in fact, was filled with plenty of excitement and drama as Royal managed to reign supreme on aggregate despite losing the second leg fixture to Trinity 13-24 on their home grounds.
Royal’s convincing 34-17 triumph at the Pallekele Stadium turned out to be a crucial factor as that 17-point lead was good enough for them to retain the Bradby Shield on a higher aggregate. The other significant feature in Royal’s success in this series in the recent past is that they have had a share of the Bradby since 2015 as the 2016 fixture ended in a tie with 35 points each.
Royal went into the deciding second leg with just a five-point lead after having won the first leg 22-17 in Colombo before Trinity came from behind to triumph 18-13 and to level the scores.
Incidentally, this was only the second time in the history of the Bradby Series that the match had ended in a tie after the 1992 encounter, where the first leg finished as a 3-3 draw and the second leg pitted into a scoreless draw.
This means Trinity are yet to win the Bradby Shield outright since their success in 2014 where they triumphed 28-16 and 19-18 respectively.
The 2014 victory also helped Trinity to retain the Bradby Shield for the fourth successive year following their success in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In fact, Trinity’s 2011 Bradby Shield win was quite a remarkable achievement as they staged one of the greatest comebacks in the series to emerge victorious on aggregate 65-38. Trinity were almost down and out as they were beaten 25-33 in the first leg before they smashed their opponents with a ruthless performance to triumph 40-5 in the second leg.
Earlier, Royal had produced a similar performance in 1998 to stage a magnificent comeback as they lost the first leg 18-20 before completely outplaying their opponents 42-11 in the second leg encounter. Meanwhile, Royal holds the record for the biggest victory margin in the series as in 2002 they annihilated Trinity 83-0 on aggregate after winning the first leg 39-0 and the second leg 44-0 respectively.
However, Trinity holds one of the oldest records in the Bradby Shield having the longest winning streak of six victories in-a-row from 1952 to 1957.