Royal won’t have it easy against Joes

Royal College, Colombo will make their final appearance in the President’s Trophy League Rugby Tournament when they host St. Joseph’s College, Colombo at the Royal Sports Complex today.

The Josephians who began the season with a sensational 27-24 win over Trinity and a hard fought 24-20 win over the Antonians suffered four successive defeats before scoring a morale boosting 21-13 win over Mahanama last week and should give the Royalists a close run today.

The Royalists will depend on their power-packed forwards Hamza Hassen, Shehan Pathirana, Kalana Amarasinghe, Nikira Senanayake, Ashen Dassanayake and Hasthika Bandaranayake to deliver the goods.

However they are likely to be once again hampered by the lack of a reliable place kicker with their regular kicker Mushin Faleel giving a woeful display throughout the season.

The Josephians who will be at full strength today will go all out to rattle the Royalists with bone-crunching tackles as they have some fierce tacklers in Adrian Hakel, Malintha Soysa and Mayura Sanjeewa.