Trinity and Royal lock horns today for ultimate prize

Trinity squad

Royal squad

Trinity skipper Usmaan Safraz

Royal skipper  Amika Samarasinghe

By Shamseer Jaleel 

Sri Lanka’s most prestigious schools rugby encounter between Trinity College and Royal College will be worked off at the Trinity College Rugby Stadium at Pallekele today.

This will be the first leg of the 79th Bradby Shield encounter.

First XV encounter will kick off at 4.15 p.m. The 1986 Bradby winning skipper of Trinity, Senani Gunaratne will be Chief Guest. Bimal Fernando was his deputy in that year.

For Trinity, the 2025 season has already been an extra ordinary one under, Usmaan Safraz and his team ended their 38 year old drought in winning the league.

Trinity’s league campaign was one to remember, as they beat Sumangala 49/15, Vidyartha 74/14, Joes 29/7, Thurstan 48/19 and Royal 34/12. In round 2 they beat Thomians 36/19 to retain the Canon R S De Seram trophy, Isipathana 32/10 and edged out Wesley 23/21. In their final game were beaten by St Peter’s 20/22.

Meanwhile in the President Trophy knock out tournament they beat Antonians 62/5, Thomians 24/15, Zahira 29/12 and lost to Isipathana 9/12 in the final encounter.

Skipper Safraz Usmaan, a dynamic leader both on and off the field, he led by example, ensuring Trinity’s flag flew high throughout the season. Skipper been ably supported by his Co Vice-captain Nisith Kumarasinghe who been the unsung hero of the Lions outfit. The flanker been outstanding both in defence as well in attack showing great leadership qualities keeping the forwards together. He was named player of the Series at the recently concluded League tournament. 

Other Co vice, Shan Althaf adds penalties plus drop goals to keep the opposition teams unsettled his long kicks to touch will be vital to gain territory. Others impressed in the Lions outfit are Shyran Satheeshkumar, Hamza Abdeen, Udan Wijekoon, Minula Yaddehige, Akash Fernando, and Manusha Silva.

Debutants Ammar Manzil, Sadeesha Weerawansa, Abdul Malik, Evin Jayasena too fit in to the team in no time and their contribution been immense this season.

Fazil Marija, their Head Coach, won the league for them after a lapse of 38 years and so close in winning the President Trophy knock out losing out to Isipathana in the final. Fazil as a player led the Kingswood outfit in 2004 to win the league then led Kandy SC in 2010 and 2015 to the league win. He was one of the rare Sri Lankan player to represent the Asian Barbarians in 2011 at the Hong Kong Tens. He is supported by Viraj Prashanth who handles the forwards with Shansuska Abeywickrema supporting and Kapila Silva managing the outfit.

Meanwhile Royal beat Kingswood 26/24, DS 41/24 and lost to Isipathana 17/24 in the semi-final of the knock out. In the league Royal only lost out to Trinity 12/34 and won the rest of the encounters in round 1 against Thurstan(74/15) Sumangala (53/13), St. Joseph’s (33/14) and Vidyartha (29/7).

Royal won the Angie Trophy, Michael Gunaratne Trophy, and Maj Milroy Fernando Trophy this season. They are led by Amiga Samarasinghe star centre and well supported by Disas Pathirana, Idris Farook and Naqeeb Mohomed. The other player who could fit in two position is Didula Jayasuriya fantastic player in attack at winger also a very safe full back.

Dushanth took over the Reid Avenue outfit as an assistant coach in 2013 while taking charge of the side in 2018. Since then he had taken Royal to 2018 unbeaten and 2019 league champions. He is the only coach to take both the school (Royal) and club (CR) unbeaten for league wins. He was also the Asia Rugby Division 1 Forwards Coach and took them to top 4 in Asia. He will have Banuka Nanayakkara as his Assistant Coach and Azmir Fajudeen the former Havies player as the Forwards Coach of the outfit. I Roshan Bandara is managing the outfit.

Bradby tally Trinity are leading with 40 to Royals 36 while 2 games ending in ties. Trinity are the defending champions having won in 2024.

Referee is David Jacobus Brouwer (South Africa).

Pix courtesy thepapare.com