The Bradby Shield two leg rugby game between Trinity College and Royal College, the first leg will be played in Colombo and the second leg in Kandy. This will be the 78th battle, where Trinitians have won 39 games and Royalists 36 with two draws. Trinity College’s last win was in 2014 under Tarinda Ratwatte, and Royal Colleges last win was in 2023 under Randul Senanayake.
Both schools have started practices and yet to play their first game they will kick off soon. This time the first leg will be played at the Royal College sports complex on 24th August under the patronage of 1985 Royal College captain Chiranjaya Nanayakkara and in the 2nd leg on 7th September at the Pallekele grounds, where Manoj Jayastissa will be the chief Guest. The junior game too will be played on this day for the CE Sumithrarachchi Trophy.
The Bradby Shield Encounter, recognized as the blue ribbon of Schools’ Rugby season, is played between Royal College and Trinity College, Kandy. The first match between the two schools was played on the 31st of July, 1920 which then became an annual encounter. The Bradby Shield was introduced in the year 1945 when Royal Principal Edward Lawrence Bradby donated the shield upon his departure from Ceylon to England and put forward the idea of playing an annual two-match series where the team with the higher aggregate score from the two legs is given the shield for a year until the two schools meet again on the field.
Mr Bradby along with another former Royal Principal J C A Corea visited Sri Lanka in July 1983 as chief guest for the Centenary match at Longden Place at which he gave away the Bradby Shield to Trinity Skipper Ashan Ratwatte after they won an aggregate of 20 -16
By Hafiz Marikar