WILL BRADBY ELUDE ROYAL……

Royal College Colombo will be out to regain the Bradby Shield which has eluded them for four long years: When they meet their arch rivals Trinity College Kandy in the 71st Bradby Shield second leg encounter at Royal complex in Colombo.
Both teams have played a good brand of rugby so far in the inter-school under-20 Singer rugby league. Both had been unbeaten up to the 1st leg, as of today the Royalists are on top and they go out favourites.
The Reid Avenue boys haven’t won the Bradby since 2010 when they last won under Duminda Attygala. But they certainly have the fire power to regain the Shield with players of the calibre of play maker and number eight Supun Warnakulasooriya, flanker Shawqat Lahir, second row Umesh Madushan, fly half Gayal Jayasinghe (son of former Royal, CH and Sri Lanka Number eight Saman Jayasinghe), captain and centre Bhanuka Gamage, speedster Mahima Gamage and pencil size speedy winger Shabith Feroz.
However, the most important role lies with their full back Ovin Askey’s kicks at goal, which he would have worked out with his kicking coach, former Army SC and Sri Lanka full back T.A. Silva (younger brother of former Army SC and Havelocks full back Upul Silva) for this most important encounter.
Royal so far under the leadership of Bhanuka Gamage, has remained unbeaten – beating St. Anthony’s 38-10, Science College 37-22, Dharmaraja 17-5, S. Thomas’ 52-0 and Trinity 23-22 in the 1st leg at Pallekele .
Royal College is coached by former Isipathana and CR player Sanath Martis, who previously coached Isipathana, St. Anne’s Kurunegala, Wesley College, and St. Peters, and is arguably the number one school coach in the island. He is ably assisted by former Royal and Sri Lanka number eight Dushantha Lewke.
, Martis revealed that he respects the Trinitians being traditional partners with Royal in the Bradby encounter. In this 2nd leg match, he expects a good fight from Trinity. Nevertheless he has fine-tuned the Royal team by rectifying the issues they had in the first leg, especially in the line outs. Also, he said he’s extremely happy the way Royal went on about doing things right, especially on all the rucks and mauls. Finally, he concluded stating that his only wish is to somehow win the game even by one point on Saturday and bring back the Bradby that has eluded them for the past four years.
Trinity on the other hand under their captain and number eight Isuru Rangala had a mixed season this year beating Dharmaraja 50-37,
St. Anthony’s 49-13, S. Thomas’ 40-15, a close call with Science by 22-17 and losing the Bradby 1st leg 23-22 to Royal at their home ground Pallekele.
The players to watch from the Trinity camp are their captain, flanker Rukshan Dhammapala, prop Nathan Yee, second row’s Rahul Karunathilaka and Rishane Madena (the youngest son of former Trinity and Sri Lanka under-19 cricket captain, as well as Trinity rugby player Denham Madena), 16-year-old scrum half Anuk Boyagoda, centre Ryan Weerakoon and play maker Saranga Gunathilake.
This year’s Trinity College rugby team is coached by former Irish international and British Lions number eight Erik Miller, who is a renowned rugby coach in Europe.
Referee for the match is Kandyan Aruna Rankothge