Ready yourself for a no – holds – barred contest
It may be a bit short of Trinity’s all time high of six Bradby triumphs from 1952 to 1957. No matter, a win in the second leg of the 70th encounter at Pallekelle would do nicely, thank you. Besides it would equal Royal’s recent run of success from 2001 to 2004.
The torch set alight by Murad Ramzeen and carried on by Kaneel Seneviratne and Halique Wadood is now in the hands of Tarinda Ratwatte. If he does succeed, Tarinda will be emulating the achievement by his father Ashan who won the Bradby in 1983, albeit despite a loss in the second leg.
The commonly held view is that the first game wasn’t a nice, attractive one. It was all broken up, had too many infringements (not the fault of Referee Gunasekera!) and there was no free flow.
Nimshan Jayawardene - Royal Captain
As expected, Royal relied on their forte – the pack – whereas the Trinitians depended on their vibrant back division. Though the latter produced only a few tricky moves, the outsides ran straight, the collection and the backing up were good, and the extra man was always there. Three passes were dropped and, if accepted, the score would have swelled. In general, Trinity made good use of the opportunities that came their way. In tight situations, Trinity’s defence on the line was very good. On the debit side, Trinity did not get clean ball even on their put-ins. As a result the passes were rushed.Which brings us to the Royal pack. Their scrimmaging was far superior to that of their opponents. The Trinity front row was completely outplayed. The Trinity pack was no match for the Royal eight. The lines out were dominated by Royal and, at times Trinity did not even offer a challenge.
The blue, gold and blue boys had a lot of possession in terms of territory but still they were not able to capitalize. With the notable exception of the talented skipper Nimshan Jayawardena, the Royal three-quarters were woefully weak. Jayawardena played a clever intelligent game. His running and passing were very good, yet squandered possession and, at times, the threes were bottled up.
Tharinda Ratwatte - Trinity Captain
The Royalists attempted the high ball tactic on Trinity’s full back Sanchana Sheik. The latter waited for the ball to bounce and the Royal pack, seizing the advantage, was on him. But thereafter Royal’s play fizzled out.
What will Saturday bring? Royal has never come back from a deficit as large as this (12 points) and wrested the Bradby Shield. The momentum gained, the surge of confidence all point to a Trinity win.
One does not see a foresee a drastic change in the game plan: vis-à-vis Trinity’s outsides and Royal’s pack. After all, Royal cannot turn out a Jagath Fernando or a Michael Muller in a matter of ten or twelve days.Both teams rely heavily on their skippers Jayawardena scored all of Royal’s 18 points while his counterpart 
accounted for 13 of his side’s 28 points, while not scoring a try himself. That tells a story. Royal is very short of senior, experienced players whereas Trinity has, in players such as Lochana Girihagama, Sancghana Sheik and Sachintha Dissanaike, back division players who can take the cue from the skipper and inflict damage on their opponents. In short these players do not always feed on the crumbs that fall off the Ratwatte table.
Trinity plays wide and when they move the ball, it is invariably difficult for the opposing defence.
Noticeably, the Royalists lost a certain amount of momentum around ten minutes after the restart. They didn’t seem to have too much energy lift. This would play into the hands of the Trinitians who are past masters at the going at it hammer and tongs in the last quarter.Home advantage, that twelve point cushion may all work against Royal. Yet, Royal is not going to lie down and die. Ready yourself for a no holds barred contest but at the end, it could be Trinity’s four in four.