Trinity had satisfying season this year

By: Shamsher Jaleel (reporting from Kandy)

RUGBY: Trinity finally prevailed! The Trinitians were out on two missions this season-one of their missions was to bring back the ‘Bradby Shield’ to Kandy. The other one was to farewell in the most competitive school league top division.

This was the aim of both coaches - Anil Jayasinghe (three-quarters) and Pradeep Basnayake (forwards) for the 2008 rugby season. They achieved both in fine style.

First, Trinity became runner-up in the Singer League under 20 to Kingswood College. They went down fighting to a better team that day. The Trinitians lost 5-12. This was somewhat a drawback. Both Trinity and Kingswood are the first two schools to play in a inter-school rugby match in Ceylon as the country was then known, way back in 1906.

Trinity regained the Bradby Shield by virtue of their first leg win over Royal in Colombo. The Trinitians won the initial ‘leg’ 24-12 and were edged out in the second one by 8-0. On aggregate they brought the trophy back to Kandy 24-20.

Trinitians enjoyed one of their best seasons in the last two or three decades. The only side which comes in to my mind is the outfit in 1987 led by Tyrell Rajapakse.

The boys were lucky to be with Tyrell who motivated the young ‘Lions’ and was with them over a month’s period. Though Tyrell’s 1987 side’s line was crossed only once the whole season and the side even went on to win the knock-out trophy then called the Premadasa Trophy the opposition was not so great with only a few sides who were able to give a run for the ‘Lions’.

But this year, out of the 9 teams in the top division, nearly six of them were of top grade. The differences between the sides from number 1 to 6 in the ‘A’ Division was minimal.

‘Lions’ story this season is simply of team work, commitment and determination.

They proved this year with only one coloursman in the side_skipper Milinda Gunawardena, they played well. But they went as ‘underdogs’ for their first outing against Isipathana in Colombo. They had only one warm-up before this one against St.Sylvester’s College where the Lions were on a rampage and Trinity won 60 point.

The game against Isipathana was an acid test for the young ones. Though everything was against them and even the game was played in Colombo, ‘Lions’ dashed all hopes by beating the tough Isipathana team 29-10. Some even thought the Trinitians had hit the peak too early. A week later, they beat Vidyartha College 60-9.

Almost all the games were like this in the season for Trinity. They regained the Canon de Saram trophy when they not only outclassed the Thomians but also overcome number of errors made by the referee and the touch judges. They went on to beat St.Anthony’s 25-24 and Rajans 25-14 before going down to the tough Peterites 15-10 before meeting Royal in the first-leg.

Hats off to their two coaches Pradeep Basnayake and Anil Jayasinghe who turned this ordinary side into a champion outfit.