Traditional rivals Trinity- Royal in crucial league encounter today

By M. Shamil Amit  

Traditional Bradby Shield rivals Royal and Trinity will clash in a crucial league encounter of ongoing Dialog Schools Rugby tournament scheduled to be kicked off at 4.15 p.m. at the Royal Sports Complex ground today.  
This will be played apart from the traditional two leg Bradby Shield encounters which are scheduled to be played on 20th of August in Colombo and 3rd of September in Kandy.   

The game could be billed an ideal rehearsal for the two teams before they confront each other in the much awaited big clash, who both are in the same group of Dialog Schools league along with St. Joseph’s, Kingswood, S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia and St. Anthony’s Katugastota.  

The two teams are coming into the game with confidence having chalked up two successive wins, with Royal led by Harshith Peiris overcoming St. Anthony’s in the first match and then recording a run-away win against Kingswood while Trinity led by Lithmal Moragoda got the better of S. Thomas’ to regain the Canon R. S. de Saram Shield and then overcame hometown rivals St. Anthony’s.   

Even though emerging victorious, the Royalists were made to work hard for their win against the Antonians before recording a big win against a weak Kingswood side who has so far given away 87 points in the their two games.  
Likewise Trinity underwent the same fate with an unimpressive win against the Thomians before overcoming a spirited Antonian outfit to whom they conceded a lead at the breather before pulling off victory in the dying stages of the game.  

Royal will come into the game sans their prop forward Shenal Adikaram who sustained an injury in the previous game and Viboda Dabare will take his place. Skipper Harshith Peiris is not short of players as he has in the likes of his deputy Kaveen Sasanga, Pasindu Heshan, Hasnaka Higgoda, Navin Perera, Supun Gamlath and Rahil Wijeyesekera who all have so far shown potential.  

Trinity skipper Lithmal Moragoda will bank on Kovida Wickramasinghe, Shaveen Premaratne, Chamendra Dhanapala and Anuhas Kodituwakku who all have been in the forefront in the two matches that the Lions have played to deliver the goods.  

For the record the two sides met each other in a league encounter four years ago (2018) which was then the Singer Schools rugby league where the Royalists won with ease by 39 points to 07.  
Although the Royalists are defending champions and in fact have won the schools league three times in a row they cannot afford to take the hill capital boys lightly and a closely contested encounter can be expected.