Wesley and Kingswood confront for Blaze Trophy

The officials and the two captains posing for a picture after signing the MOU

(From left) Sachintha Naveesha (Kingswood Capt), Demintha Dahanayake (Joint Committee Chairman), Dr. Muditha Abeykoon (President, Kingswood OBU), Dhammika Herath (Principal of Kingswood), Avanka Fernando (Principal, Wesley), Imtiaz Iqbal and Maithree Vithanage (Joint Rugby Committee), and Kaizer Lye (Wesley Capt)

The two captains, Sachintha Naveesha (Kingswood) and Kaizer Lye (Wesley), posing with the L.E. Blaze Trophy Pix by Pradeep Dilrukshana

By M. Shamil Amit

All arrangements have been finalized for the traditional rugby encounter between two brother schools, Wesley and Kingswood, scheduled to be kicked off on July 18 from 4.15 p.m. at the Nittawela Stadium.

This was revealed at a press conference held at the iconic 128-year-old Wesley College pavilion, graced by the two principals, Avanka Fernando of Wesley and Dhammika Herath of Kingswood, along with the rugby committee officials of the two schools.

The traditional rugby encounter between the two schools is a clash of generational rivalry, and a century-plus brotherhood will come to life yet again in honor of the pioneering father of Sri Lanka schools rugby, Louis Edmund Blaze, who is also the founder of Kingswood. The two schools share a mutual brotherhood of Methodist missionary education along with Richmond College, Galle.

Kingswood College carries the rare honor as the school which introduced rugby to the school fraternity in 1891, and the first school match was played in 1906 between Kingswood and Trinity, while Wesley began playing rugby in 1956.

Even though Wesley and Kingswood confronted each other earlier, the traditional encounter for the Blaze Trophy—donated by Roy de Silva, a prominent old boy of Kingswood and former Chairman of the Asian Olympic Committee—was introduced in 1986, which saw Kingswood led by Ronnie Ibrahim coming out winners.

This will be the 40th in the series, and Wesley are the holders of the Blaze Trophy, having won it four times in a stretch, while Kingswood last won the trophy in 2019. But overall, the Kingswoodians are leading the series tally with 23 wins as against nine by Wesley, with four matches ending in draws.

Another factor is that the Wesleyites will be coming into the game with utmost confidence after their comfortable win against S. Thomas’ in their traditional Sir Oliver Goonetileke Shield match played last week.

However, with Wesley seeking to retain the Blaze Trophy for the fifth successive year and Kingswood looking forward to breaking the seven-year hoodoo, the supporters of both sides are assured to witness the two teams battling it out for supremacy. Wesley won last year 46-10 in a match played under floodlights at Longdon Place.