An article was published in one of the columns regarding the pioneer Inter school rugby match between Royal and Trinity for the ‘Bradby Shield’ played in 1970 which Trinity won both legs. In this encounter Royal after leading 12-0 at one stage in the second half of the second leg at Nittawela, lost to their traditional rivals 16-12, but the end result will not serve justice to the outcome of the match as the star studded Reid Avenue boys never relaxed but due to an unfortunate injury to one of their key players, Michael Muller were reduced to 14 players as no replacement was allowed those days.
Dr. Maiya Gunasekera who was one of the players along with his skipper Jagath Fernando who both donned the National jersey later with distinction gave the reason for their downfall in the match, especially in the second half of the game. As mentioned Trinity won the first leg in Colombo 19-3 with a 16 points lead.
But in the second leg played in Nittawela, Royal put up a belligerent performance until the last twenty minutes of the match, after which the pendulum swung the other way . According to Maiya- Royal were
dominating play until then had a firm control of the game depriving the rivals from making inroads and making scoring moves.
Subsequently, one of their centre three quarters Michael Muller received a tough tackle and saw him hobbling on the ground with severe pain which compelled him to leave the ground. This made Royal to continue playing with 14 players and adding salt to the wounds, they were not permitted to make a replacement for the injured player as per the tournament rules in that era. This eventually resulted in skipper Jagath Fernando to pull one of his third row players Javed Yusuf who locked horns as a flanker to fill the vacant centre three quarter position, which later became a herculean task for him. Nevertheless, Royal made some valiant efforts to keep the pressure but the Trinity three quarter line imbibed with scintillating athletes in their ranks overlapped the Royal defence on various occasions to make inroads and sneak through to score 16 points after trailing 0-12.
In conclusion, if not for the injury to Michael Muller and if a replacement was granted the complexion of the game would have been in favour of the Colombo boys. It is noteworthy that Jagath Fernando the Royal skipper was one of the finest products from their ‘Alma Mater’ who excelled in both cricket and rugby.
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