Trinity’s Althaf passes his toughest rugby test at the Bradby

By A Special Sports Correspondent

Trinity produced one of their best performances at rugby this season and most importantly showed how to play against a much favoured side like Royal this season in the first leg of their Bradby Shield encounter on Saturday (July 22).

Whatever said about Royal in pre-match previews Trinity sucked out Royal’s energies throughout a 70 minute blockbuster encounter and ran away worthy winners with a 13 points to 10 win at Pallakelle; a home turf which has brought the Kandy crowd in numbers when the Trinitians are at rugby. In other words Royal were given a taste of their own medicine. We have seen how the Royalists have snuffed the life out of teams in the second half this season and the Colombo boys were quite surprised when Trinity did that to them in front of a vociferous home crowd.

The Trinity players played a few notches less than their potential, but the game produced enough punch to keep an appreciative crowd at the edge of their seats. This was thanks to a rugby lesson Trinity gave everyone at the stadium in how to groom a player for the future. And the recipient of the lesson was young 16-year old fly half Shan Althaf who was easily the pick among the Trinity players in the game against Royal.

Althaf was struggling in the first half with his kicking boots and kicked astray three vital penalties; all which were taken within kicking range. Then someone in the bench or may be the skipper then decided that Trinity would pursue with the young lad in the kicking department for the rest of the game. We remember former Sri Lanka cricketer Marvan Atapattu’s zero zero days. The cricket management or coaches at that time pursued with Atapattu and the player went on to become the captain of the national side and also one of the best openers in the game.

Althaf has many more seasons ahead of him; three more if this writer’s calculations are right. He might even captain Trinity in the future.

St. Peter’s College Bambalapitya did well to beat Science College 29-0 last week which helped them remain unbeaten this season after six weeks of rugby.

There is also another aspect to this Althaf episode. The coaching staff at Trinity must have seen huge potential in the lad to play him so early or at such a young age in the First XV side. It’s damn hard to come in so young and play in such a physical game like rugby union; even though the competition is at school level. But present day rugby is played at a time when gym facilities and supplements available for sportsmen and women are at a very advanced level. Hence being the youngest member of the side doesn’t really matter because the body can be conditioned and nourished to take some big knocks on the rugby field. Althaf wearing the number 10 jersey fed his three quarters without being selfish and also tackled hard to excel in defence. The total points he contributed to the side was eight out of the 13 that Trinity piled up. We can remember some very young players who donned the first XV jersey in school rugby at a tender age. S. Thomas’ had prop Naren Perera who was 15 when he wore the blue- black jersey, Isipatana had Champika Nishantha (Playing as a utility player) who was 13 when he wore the green jersey and Nalanda had Centre Manjula Damith who was also 13 when he wore the First XV jersey. Damith and Champika went on to represent Sri Lanka at rugby.

Royal will be licking their wounds, but they have an experienced coach in Dushanth Lewke who is capable of putting the boys through their paces and getting them ready for the second leg of the Bradby which is scheduled for August 5 (Saturday) at Royal Sports Complex.

Isipatana College under the captaincy of Nuwan Kanishka did well to see off their opponents with much ease this season in the six outings they’ve had thus far. Last week they beat Wesley 24-11 at Havelock Park. Another side that has already booked their passage to the super round in the schools’ league rugby tournament is St. Peter’s which has remained unbeaten this season. They beat Science 29-0 at Bambalapitiya last week. The other schools which are in with a chance of filling the remaining two slots are Royal, S. Thomas’, D.S. Senanayake and St. Anthony’s which have one more game each left in the first round of the tournament. In the latest standings of the points table after six weeks of school rugby Isipatana and D.S. Senanayake occupy the first and second places respectively in Division 1 Segment A Group 1 while St. Peter’s and Royal occupy first and second places in Division 1 Segment A Group 2.