Confident Royal should trouble Trinity at Bradby decider

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Royal will no doubt go into the second leg of the annual Bradby Shield rugby encounter today (September 3) at Pallakele brimming with confidence after their runaway 29-0 win over Trinity in Colombo a few days ago.

The best thing that happened to Royal this season was that they kept themselves in contention for the league crown by which the bar was raised for each player. Royal lost to Isipatana in the league decider and St. Joseph’s finished second in the points table by performing slightly better overall.

The Royalists have been committed to the game this season and have raised their performance a few notches. Playing without their regular skipper hasn’t been easy for them, but stand-in skipper Kaveen Sasanga has delivered both in leadership and also by doing his part from the base of the scrum as the linkman.

The other players who are expected to carry Royal’s hopes at the second leg of the Bradby are Hansaka Kikgoda, Pasindu Heshan, Nabeel Yahiya and Dhanuja Samararatne. Apparently, Yahiya has been quite accurate with his kicking at goal. Royal are the current holders of the Bradby having last won it in 2019 with an aggregate of 47 points to 41. The Bradby Shield encounter didn’t take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

Trinity on the other hand is a side that started well this season and lost their way as the season progressed. At one stage of the league rugby tournament, Trinity was the only team to have beaten the high-riding Royalists. In that match, Trinity pulled off a thrilling 21 points to 20 victory over the side from Reid Avenue.

One of Trinity’s worries this season has been the kicking at goal. Both kickers Anuhas Kodithuwakku and Kovida Wickremesinghe are struggling to find form with their kicking duties. But apart from kicking Kodithuwakku has dazzled while playing in the position of fly-half. The other players who carry Trinity’s chances are A. Manzil, Z. Zakir, Shaveen Premaratne and C. Dhanapala. Trinity is coached this season by Kavinda Jayasena while the lads from Reid Avenue have been coached by Dushanth Lewke.