Trinity out to foil Royal’s fourth ‘Bradby’ win in-a-row
Trinity will look to bring an end to Royal’s dominance in the Bradby Shield series during the recent past when the two teams clash in the first leg of their 76th annual encounter at the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue today.
In fact, Royal are chasing an elusive fourth successive Bradby success while Trinity are hoping to regain the coveted Shield after a lapse of eight years having last emerged victorious in 2014. Trinity of course, had a share of the Bradby Shield in 2016 after the fixture ended in a tie but since then it has been all Royal, who went on to make a hat-trick of victories from 2017 to 2019.
Out of the 75 matches Trinity have won 39 while Royal have 34 with two matches ending in a tie. The match was not played in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, both teams are confident ahead of this high-profile game, but Trinity will be rather concerned as they have not played a competitive match for almost a month.
Their last League Tournament match was played on July 23 on their home grounds in Pallekele where they outplayed Kingswood College by a massive margin of 53-6.
In contrast, Royal have been quite a busy team as they made it to the Super Round stage of the League Tournament and figured in two tough games against Wesley and Isipathana respectively.
Even then, Trinity will have a psychological advantage and will look to draw inspiration from this year’s League Tournament fixture where they edged out Royal 21-20 in an exciting contest at this same venue. But that was the early part of the season and since then Royal have come out with some stellar performances and to eventually secure the third place of the ‘A’ Division League Tournament.
No doubt, Royal’s main try scoring potential is with their mobile set of forwards, but they will need to focus more on the line outs, which sometimes could also bring their downfall due to poor decision making. Royal also have a couple of good ball carriers with them and Danuja Samararatne Abdullah Yoosuf and Rahil Wijesekera will have their work cut out against an equally brilliant set of forwards.
However, Trinity would probably depend more on their back division and will look for players like Ashen Wijesuriya, Anuhas Kodituwakku and Bashana Wijesinghe to deliver the goods.
Royal’s other key factor is their solid halves combination of Hasnaka Higgoda and Thivain Perera, who have always created doubts in the opposition camp through some beautiful work from the base.
Royal (Probable): Shenal Adhikaram, Danuja Samararatne, Supun Gamlath, Abdullah Yoosuf, Rahil Wijesekera, Navin Perera, Buwaneka Senanayake, Randul Senanayake, Hasnaka Higgoda and Thivain Perera, Pasindu Heshan, Kaveen Sasanga, Philio Calyaneratne Harsith Peiris (Captain), Nabeel Yehiya.
Trinity Squad: Thenuk Fernando, Kaveesha Edama, Loshika Wijekoon, Jayageeth Basnayake, Thisanga Dissanayake, Harith Samaraweera, Shamendra Dissanayake, Chamedra Dhanapala, Sheveen Premaratne, Anuhas Kodituwakku, Upek Gammudali, Lithmal Moragoda (Captain), Abdul Kaleel, Bashara Wijesinghe, Aathab Manzil, Sheshan Zakir, Kovida Wickremasinghe, Ashen Wijesooriya, Senula Alexander, Yasiru Ariyawansha, Bihindu Pananwala, Ravin Ilangaratne, Venuka Kumarage, Lakindu Herath, Sachindu Wanasekera, Rushen Bandaranayake, Amdan Faizal.
Referee: Ishanka Abeykoon.