Royal go out favourites in ‘Bradby’ return

Trinity may spring a surprise in Second Leg:

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

Royal College, Colombo, with a handy ten-point lead, will go out favourites when they scrum down with Trinity College, Kandy in the second leg of their 65th Bradby Shield rugby encounter to be played at Royal Rugby complex, Colombo 7 this evening.

When the two teams met in the first leg a fortnight ago at Bogambara Stadium, Royal humbled the Lions in their own den to emerge victorious by 22 points to 12.

With the ‘home’ advantage and the ten-point advantage they gained at Bogambara, the Reid Avenue boys have a distinct advantage to regain the ‘Bradby’.

Nevertheless, Trinity has a talented side which could spring a surprise at any moment.

Especially, they have a speedy back division which is capable of making some deadly and penetrative moves. If the Trinity ‘threes’ could be on top gear, the visitors could give Royal some anxious moments.

If Trinity could score a couple of early tries and wipe off the deficit, then the Lions are in a position to apply pressure on their opponents.

The team which draws the first blood and hold territorial as well as scoring advantage within the first 15 minutes of the first half would hold the key.

Royal exposed all weak links in the Trinity defence in running down four tries in the first leg.

If they maintain the same enthusiasm and power play with their heavy and mobile pack, none could stop Naren Dhason holding aloft the coveted Bradby Shield by this evening.

The Reid Avenue Boys have retained the victorious team which did duty for them at Bogambara.

They have made a careful analysis of the first leg and are determined to put up even an aggressive performance to humble Trinity. The strength of the Royal team lies on their ‘pack’ and they would prefer to keep the ball with their forwards.

Trinity plans to make a couple of changes in their final line up, most probably in the back division. There is a possibility of Trinity fielding former Antonian and Sri Lanka youth player Imad Reyal in the last line of defence.

He was compelled to leave St. Anthony’s as he was ineligible to remain in school and joined Trinity at the start of the season. Since the ‘return’ leg is not counted as a schools tournament match, Trinity may play Reyal.

In contrast, Trinity has a penetrative back division and if the Trinity ‘threes’ gets in to real action, Royal may find their ten-point lead insufficient to secure the Bradby.

Trinity will forget their first leg debacle and take this game with a fresh mind. Their immediate target would be to bridge the ‘gap’ and press for a win.

The history of the Bradby Shield series has several instances of those great fight backs by Trinity, after losing the first leg. Vishwajith Wijesinghe and his boys have worked overtime to rectify their errors at the first leg and to instrument another great Trinity fight back.

Whatever the outcome would be, it would be the great game played with the oval shaped ball that is going to emerge victorious at the end as the Bradby encounter would always dish out rugby at its best. The two teams have always maintained the high rugby traditions that are hard to match for nearly a century.

The Royal-Trinity rugby series began way back in 1920 and today’s encounter will be the 154th meeting between the two sides.

The Bradby Shield was introduced only in 1945 in honour of the former Royal Principal the late E.L. Bradby.

Of the 64 Bradby Shield encounters, Trinity takes the lead with 35 wins to Royal’s 28 with one tie.

Trinity are the current custodians of the coveted Bradby Shield, having narrowly won last year’s encounter on a better aggregate - winning the first leg 24-12 in Colombo and losing the ‘return’ leg 0-8 in Kandy last year.

Royal last won the ‘Bradby’ in 2007 under Manil Abeyratne.

ROYAL: Nikira Senanayake, Udara de Silva, Ashen Dassanayake, Kalana Amarasinghe, Ranga Perera, Shehan Pathirana, Hasthika Bandaranayake, Hanza Hassen, Aqueel Sathuk and Naren Dhason (Capt.), Shamil Ahamed, Duminda Attygalle, Mushin Faleel, Chamara Dabare, Shabbir Mohamed.

TRINITY: Chamudith Weerakoon, Damith Dissanayake, Murad Ramzeen, Gotabaya Mahesh, Deshan Aluvihare, Idris Omar, Murugesan Unananaudan, Mohamed Irfan or Shannon Armstrong, Adeeb Hameed and Rehan Weerakoon, Kennan Armstrong, Vishwajith Wijesinghe (Captain), Lasantha Samarasekera, Akila Dissanayake, Kanchana Ramanayake or Imad Reyal.

Referee: Pradeep Fernando