League title winners Royal College have opted to sit out of the Milo Presidents’ Knockouts trophy that is set to commence this week citing injury concerns paving the way for Dharmaraja College to go directly to the semi-finals.
Royal College who were crowned league title winners a fortnight ago after defeating Trinity College completed their season winning the 73rd Bradby Shield encounter last weekend at the Royal College Sports Complex.
Speaking to ThePapare, Principal of Royal College B. A. Abeyratne cited the persistent injuries to be the primary concern for his team to withdraw from the knock-out trophy.
“Royal will not be playing due to 8 players sustaining serious injuries. The decision arrived after me and the rugby master-in-charge along with the coaches had a discussion. Thereafter we decided not to play and withdraw from the competition.”
Royal’s run in the Milo President’s Trophy in their recent past has been impressive although they had not got the chance of winning it in recent times. The Royalists finished in the finals in both 2014 and 2016 while the team were semifinalists in 2015.
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The withdrawal of Royal College will give their opponents Dharmaraja College a walkover in the quarterfinals and they will go directly into the semifinal stage. Thereby, Dharmaraja College will face the winner of the match between Wesley and St. Joseph’s.
Dharmaraja College was the team that put up a strong contest in the first round games but did not have the necessary expertise to sustain themselves to win. However, the Rajans were placed second in the Plate Championship although they along with St. Anthony are equalled in points.
Read about the Plate Division: Science & Prince of Wales relegated
“In the league, we could not win enough matches to stay, but we played ourselves out in the Plate to end 2nd. We are working hard to take the trophy to Kandy this time” added the Dharmaraja skipper Chamika Perera at the press conference held ahead of the Presidents’ Trophy.
Read More: Dharmaraja pulls off a stunner against St.Peters
Dharmaraja came into the league as a lesser known team but most of the top tier teams including league winners Royal College were put on an acid test by the Rajans.
With luck of the draw favouring the team from Kandy, we can expect to see stiff competition when it comes to the decisive semifinal stage when they take the ground for the first time.
