Royal face a fierce challenge from Trinity

The confrontation between traditional rivals Royal College, Colombo and Trinity College, Kandy in the First Leg of the 68th Bradby shield encounter on June 16 (Saturday) at the Royal Sports Complex should turn out to be close tussle for supremacy. The match is also a Singer League segment one ‘A’ Division game. Defending league champions Royal remain unbeaten after winning all seven matches this season but face a fierce challenge from Trinity.

Possession will play a vital role in a game of this nature. The set scrums should be shared between Royal's hooker Shuaib Muthaliph and Trinity's Sinhalaxana while in the line outs the Trinity trio of Randika Alwis, Dharmasena and Madena have the edge over the Royal duo of Wasim Bawa and Andrew Siriwardena. The ‘Lions’ are bound to make maximum use of the ‘good ball’ that comes their way.

In third year coloursmen Sanjaya Somasiri and fly half Tharinda Ratwatte, they have a fine halves combination while centres skipper Kaneel Seneviratne and Thisila Karunatilleke are capable of tearing apart the Royal defence with their probing runs while wingers Lochana Girihagama and Darshana Udalagama have stood out with their powerful runs down the flank in addition to an attacking full back in Halique Wadood.

The lads from Reid Avenue preferred to keep play with their forwards last week due to the presence of a half fit Arshad Jemaldeen in the fly half berth. But on Saturday they are likely to work their three quarters more often as they have an experienced halves combination in Ravishan Dassanayake and Arshard Jamaldeen while centre Damien Ratwatte a hard runner is capable of piercing the Trinity defence while the two speedy wingers the experienced Ijaz Bohoran and young Nimshan Jayawardena are likely to test the Trinity defence to the hilt with their daring runs with the seasoned Rimzi Jamaldeen having the knack of joining the line to form the overlap.

The lack of fitness was very much evident in Royal's last few matches and should be a cause of worry for them along with the poor kicking form of Rimzi Jamaldeen who missed three conversions and sitter of a penalty from 25 metres out in the last match against the Peterites.