Late Blitz Shatters Royal

The vuvuzelas and papare bands converted Pallakelle into a mini cricket match atmosphere, which is not ideal for a rugby match, but the fare actually on the field allowed for the purists to walk away extremely satisfied regardless of their allegiances.

The overcast conditions in Kandy threatened to ruin a fast open spectacle, but the Anglican god smiled kindly on the hosts and the weather stayed largely clear for the entirety of the game. It spared the massive crowd a drenching and allowed for what was probably one of the best games of the season, controlled excellently by the world’s most capped referee Jonathan Kaplan, of South Africa.

Trinity opened the scoring in the second minute when Tarindra Ratwatte put over a 30m penalty from the left flank. Royal then proceeded to concede a spate of penalties for not releasing the tackled player. This put the visitors under some pressure early on which they manfully absorbed. Royal struggled to find their rhythm in the first ten minutes with Kaplan’s correct interpretation of the tackle rules frustrating the bigger, tighter Royal team. Trinity did get away with closing the gaps in the lineouts early on which mean that Royal had very little possession. When they did get some field position through the boot of skipper Jamaldeen, they managed to score a trademark pushover from their rolling maul in the 20^th minute.

The two point lead was short lived though, when a rush of blood to the Royal scrum half Nevan Perera’s head, led to him riskily keeping the ball in play and palming it into the hand of the onrushing Trinity attacker, who gleefully fell over for the host team’s first try. The try came out of nothing for Trinity and helped them regain the lead momentarily. Smarting from the soft try, Royal stormed back with their forwards benefitting from the cool conditions and the soft underfoot turf.

It bafflingly took Royal and Jamaldeen 31 minutes to put Trinity right winger Lochana Girahagama under pressure with the high ball, and when he finally did Girahagam obliged with a knock on to give Royal the attacking scrum. A few phases later Jamaldeen changed direction, scything through the Trinity defence to score. It was a costly score though, as he was injured in the process and played the rest of the game at less than a hundred per cent.

Nimshan Jayawardena who counter attacked well from the back, converted the try while his skipper was being attended to, and then also obliged with a penalty just before the end of the half, to cap a period of complete dominance by Royal, which took them into the half time break at 18 – 8, thanks to another 40m thump from the injured captain. Trinity’s defence was excellent though, and had Singalaxana and Thalgahagoda to thank for limiting Royal’s onslaught to a ten point gap. The third rowers were excellent, and the second half saw Ashan Perera at no. 8 have his best game of the tournament.

Both teams came out with renewed intent in the second half, with aggression being a word that was clearly used by both coaches in the half time huddle. Royal’s left winger Udesh took this to the extreme, tip tackling Girahagama who had already knocked the ball on, in the very first minute of the second half. Kaplan pulled out his yellow card for the only time of the game, and the lack of discipline cost Royal immediately, with great distribution from the Ratwatte seeing Sanchana Shiek, standing in at full back for his captain, scoring where the winger would have been standing in defence. The score completely shifted the momentum of the entire game and gave the Trinity backs the confidence to run the ball more directly, notably bringing their blind side wingers into the game.

Basu Tillekaratne, recovering from his ankle injury to start the Bradby, led the charge against the 14 man Royalists and some quick hands from the big prop saw Ratwatte ghosting down the blindside to score close to the posts, although he surprisingly missed the conversion. Thalgahagoda was unfortunately injured in the build up and had to leave the field after doing more than his fair share of work. Less than five minutes later, Trinity score the try of the match when the woozy Jamaldeen had a kick partially charged down. The resulting scrum deep in the Royal 22, saw Girahagama who has had a quiet season so far, forming the overlap from the blindside, for Dureka Aluwihare to send Sasmin over in the left corner. The first phase score showed great execution from Trinity who had added a little zip with Rideemahaliyadde improving the ball movement from the base in place of the hard working Naresh Perera.

At 26 – 18 Royal decided enough was enough and scored another pushover try after kicking to the corner from a penalty. It was a bold move that paid dividends, but it seemed that the Royal tactic was a little disrupted by Kaplan’s lack of interference with the sacking of the line out jumper, preventing Royal from setting up their dangerous rolling maul. It was a tactical battle that Trinity had prepared for better, but despite that, it was suddenly a one point game at 25 – 26 with Jamaldeen’s angular conversion.

That was all the scoring Royal would do on the afternoon, with the fast paced game and the injury to their fulcrum and skipper, taking its toll on the Royal forwards. Trinity had also spruced up their line out to unrecognizable levels and did not cough up as much ball as Royal would have assumed. Ratwatte then decided to take charge and whacked over a dropped goal from 35m and then put over a penalty with five minutes to go. Some lapses in concentration in finding touch and carrying the ball back into the 22 resulted in Royal putting pressure on themselves. This pressure resulted in the tiring Royal defence conceding a last gasp try to Rangala who had really helped Trinity compete in the line outs.

The tactical battle was fascinating, with Royal not executing as well as they needed to. Trinity who were completely outplayed in the first half, defended desperately and capitalized on the fast pace of the game to score late on and cement a 12 point lead that will serve them well in the second leg. The tie is far from over though, and except for a few lapses in concentration, and stupid disciplinary errors, this was Royal’s game to sew up. No doubt the tactics on both teams will be refined, and Trinity will find it difficult to reach the sorts of heights their players reached in this game. A fortnight with Dharmaraja in between maybe a little too much for Royal to handle, but things in Colombo will be far from boring.