Trinity favoured to win today
 

BY DINESH Weerawansa

TRINITY College would hold the key to the first leg of their 61st Bradby Shield rugby encounter against Royal College to be played at Bogambara Stadium, Kandy today. Both teams, better known to be powerhouses in local schools rugby, however, have a poor track record this season.

While Royal has experienced one of their worst ever seasons in their long rugby history, Trinity has fared slightly better. However, both teams have fared far bellow expectations during the current season.

But it is going to be a different story at the 'Bradby' altogether as both teams would rise to the occasion to dish out some fast and open rugby, which had been the hallmark of the series, considered as the most important rugby match in the local schools calendar.

Royal have had their own share in the recent Bradby history, winning the coveted shield during the last four years in-a-row. But their attempt for a record fifth successive Bradby Shield win this year would be an uphill task.

Last year, Royal tasted their fourth straight Bradby win with a smashing 41-6 win in the first leg in Colombo and a 10-0 win in the 'return' leg at Kandy.

It was for the first time that the Reid Avenue boys had scored four Bradby wins in a row, bettering their previous three in-a-row records from 1978 to 1980 and 1988 to 1990.

Royal's Bradby feast of this decade began in 2001, followed by a record aggregate of 83-0 in 2002 under Zulki Hameed.

But the longest sequence of wins is by Trinity who won from 1952 to 1957 - six wins in a row. Of the 60 two-leg encounters played in the Bradby Shield series, Trinity takes the lead with 32 wins to Royal's 27. The only series tie was witnessed in 1992 when both matches ended in draws.

The Royal-Trinity series began way back in 1920, exactly 25 years before the Bradby Shield was introduced in 1945.

The series is played in honour of Edward Lawrence Bradby, Principal of Royal College from 1939 to 1945. Born in 1907, Bradby was educated at Rugby and Oxford, where he took a double first in Classics.

At 32 years, he became Royal's Principal in 1939 to play an exemplary role. In 1993 Bradby came to Sri Lanka to grace the centenary match, before passing away in 1996 at the age of 99.

Royal are in the team building process, having lost the services of all the big names who have been the architects of their wins in the last four years. They field a young and inexperienced side with an average age of under 16 years.

Royal's hopes of a shock win would mainly depend on their pack. But they are bound to get a testing time with their opponents gearing up to take the Bradby shield to the hill capital after five long years.

Despite nursing a ligament in jury, Royal captain Varuna Wijewardena has made a reasonable effort to inspire his team, packed with new faces. He is set to switch on from his pet position of center three quarter to become the fly half and make the best use of his forwards as well as the backs.

The presence of Wijewardena has been a blessing to Royal, especially with his golden boot to get rid of tense situations. But place kicking has been a major worry for Royal this season and Chamika Sandaruwan will have to be more accurate if Royal are to survive in a close game.

On the other hand, Trinity has a better back division which is bound to make some threatening moves, if the forwards click well and feed the line more often.

Under the circumstances, Royal would prefer to keep the ball with their forwards, rather than exposing their relatively unimpressive back division.

The Trinity 'threes' this season recalls the sweet memories of the speedy back division Trinity had in their champion outfit of 1987 under Tyrell Rajapakse. That team was an invincible force in that era.

Incidentally, member of that champion unbeaten outfit has gifted his son to the present team - second rower Shaun Wanigasekera Jnr, the babe of the side who has enjoyed a good season.

Trinity suffered a major setback in their last outing before the 'Bradby", losing to home town rivals St. Anthony's 19-31 last weekend. Nevertheless, the lions would put aside that defeat and would try to make best use of the home conditions.

Whatever it is, Bradby shied has its own identity as the blue ribband of local schools rugby. Hence, the match should generate its own exciting movements with rugby at its best.