Bradby Shield first leg on May 30

The first leg of the prestigious Bradby Shield encounter between Trinity College, Kandy and Royal College, Colombo will take place at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy on May 30 (Saturday).

The Trinitians scored a morale-boosting 43-33 win over the Peterites in their final outing with a dazzling display of open rugby with their halves combination of Adeeb Hameed and Rehan Weerakoon hitting it off smoothly.

Centres Lasantha Samarasekera and skipper Vishwajith Wijesinghe pierced the Peterite defence time and again with their probing runs while strongly built Kennon Armstrong and young Akila Dissanayake tested the Peterite defence to the hilt with their powerful runs down the flank.

They crossed the Peterite goal line on six occasions and a repeat performance by the Trinity three quarters should see them emerging victorious in Bogambara.

The Royalists scored an unimpressive 54-13 win over Mahanama on Saturday.

They will be relying on their forwards to deliver the goods with Udara de Silva, Ashen Dissanayake, Hamza Hassen, Shehan Pathirana and Sri Lanka Youth players Kalana Amarasinghe and Hasthika Bandaranayake likely to give of their best.

But they are likely to miss the services of prop forward Nikira Senanayake who is still recovering from injury.

However, the biggest problem for Royal will be the lack of a reliable place kicker with Mushin Faleel giving a pathetic display of kicking in all four matches which they have played so far.