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Two defeats in three games: Trinity cautiously optimistic |
| By Aubrey Kuruppu |
Two defeats in three games and, at the time of writing, the Bradby Shield is being gift wrapped for delivery at the Royal Rugby complex come June 13th.
Trinitians, by and large, don’t buy this argument. A more realistic appraisal suggests that this is a talented side that has under achieved so far. Harking back to the Josephian match (lost 24-27), it seemed that the Trinitians were not quite ready for it. They were a trifle under-done. There was also a tinge of pre-match complacency, after all, the Joes were only B division champs, on the day, the lions had no answer to their tactics. They struggled when they didn’t' have the ball.
The 49-10 defeat of the Antonians was good for the psyche, even though it was too flattering, In defeat against the Thomians, Trinity dished out their best performance, The tries they scored were very professional copy-book ones, on the debit side, they didn't sustain their game plan for more than ten to fifteen minutes. Had the team gelled for even two-thirds of the match, it could have been a different story. Yet Trinity can take heart from the fact that these has been a match by match improvement.
Trinity has big forwards but their work in the rucks has not been excellent. The line outs have also been a bit loose. The back division is their strength, with skipper Visvajith Wijesinghe (a winger turned centre) as their undoubted star. Winger Akila Dissanaike is not all that far behind in the glamour stakes. He has used his speed to very good effect to score many tries.
Royal have a clean slate and, together with Kingswood, look the teams to beat. Yet, there is an Achilles heel. The back division is not what it should be and it is this little fallibility that the Lions will try to exploit.
Winning at home is of the essence, as beating the Royalists at their complex is doubly difficult. However, Trinity did achieve a win (24-12) in Colombo, only to lose 0-8 on home terrain last year Milinda Gunawardena's 2008 team did win the Bradby, For the statistically-minded, Trinity leads the Bradby tally. One match- the 1992 one – was tied , 3 all and nil all.
Probable Side: Props- Sandakelum Bandara, D. Balasubramaniam. Hooker - Damith Dissanaike. Locks - Gotabaya Mahes, Deshan Aluvihare. Flankers - Mohamed Ishan, Murugesu Umananthan. Number 8 - Idris Omar. Scrum Half - Adeeb Hamid Fly half - Rehan Weerakoon. Centres - Lasantha Samarasekera Visvajith Wijesinghe (Capt) Wingers - Akila Dissanaike, Kennon Armstrong. Full back - Kanchana Ramanayake. |
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