Royal hold big advantage Royal hold big advantage

By Shamseer Jaleel in Kandy

Royal College will go into the second leg of the 76th Bradby Shield encounter at the Trinity College Rugby Stadium in Pallekele today full of confidence, holding a massive lead of 29 points. 

Kick-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will be preceded by the Under 16 encounter scheduled at 2.45 pm.
Royal College had a good league season losing out only to Trinity College by a solitary point, but took sweet revenge two weeks later at the first leg of the Bradby, winning 29-00. 

If Trinity do overturn the huge deficit, it will be their first Bradby Shield win since 2014, when they won under Tharinda Ratwatte.

Royal will be led by their cracking Centre, Kaveen Sasanga, who will rely on his star player, Full-back Nabeel Yehya, who has helped Royal gain territory with his booming kicks into the opposition half. 
His kicks at goal too have had a high success rate. 

The Royal outfit is coached by former CR and FC, Kandy SC and national player Dushantha Lewke while another former national player Radhika Hettiarachchi is assistant coach, with Paul Thomas being their Team Manager.
Meanwhile there are some injury concerns over Trinity captain Lithmal Moragoda, which could limit his participation even if he was to take the field. Much will be expected from Anuhas Kodituwakku, Jayageeth Basnayake, Sheshan Zakir, Kovida Wickremasinghe and Attab Manzil to overturn the massive deficit. 

Trinity is coached by former Havelock SC and national player Kavinda Jayasena with Thusitha de Silva being his deputy.  Rajindra Gamage is their Team Manager.

Trinity lead the series with 39 wins to Royal’s 34 while 2 games ended in tie.

Trinity’s 1982 rugby captain and Rugby “Lion” Byron Fernando will be the Chief Guest at the second leg today. 
He played along with some top players such as Ravi Bandaranayake, LS Pilapitiya, Roshan Ratwatte and Dilip Adihetty. In 1982 Trinity won 09-06 and 06-04 with Fernando scoring all the points for the Trinity outfit plus accumulating over 100 points in that season. 

Trinity only lost out to Dilroy Fernando’s Isipathana outfit during the 1982 season. 
He also led the Basketball side in 1981. 
Fernando played in three positions according to the team’s requirement, as Fly-half, Number 8 or Full-back and was a great asset to his team.

Trinity

Loshika Wijekoon, Kaveesha Edema, Thenuk Fernando, Jayageeth Basnayake, Thisanga Dissanayake, Bihindu Pananwala, Shamendra Dissanayake, Chamendra Dhanapala, Sheveen Premaratne, Kovida Wickremasinghe, Bashana Wijesighe, Anuhas Kodituwakku, Abdul Kaleel, Lithmal Moragoda (Capt), Aathab Manzil

Royal

Kavinash Srikanth, Dhanuja Samararatne, Shenal Adikaram, Yehan Weerasooriya, Rahil Wijesekera, Abdullah Yoosuf, Yovinda Ethulgala, Randul Bandara, Hasanka Higgoda, Thivan Perera, Pasindu Heshan, Thevinu Saparamadu, Philio Calyanaratne, Kaveen Sasanga, Nabeel Yehya, Thineth Gamage, Hafeez Akram, Supun Gamlath, Binuda Malalgama, Thavir Hassen, Idrak Farook, Navin Perera, Idris Farook, Harsith Peiris and Duljaya Gamanayake.

Referee: Gihan Yatawara