Trinity hot favourites after 38 years

Hot favourites of the inter school League rugby championship Trinity College have snowballed into the hottest in the fray and look set to win back their image as a title-winning team after a rousing 36-19 win over S. Thomas’ College last week and are within striking distance of becoming the undisputed kings of youth rugby in the island this year.

The last time Trinity won a trophy was in 1987 when they knocked out Isipathana College in the final of the Premadasa Trophy thanks to a last ditch try by winger Nilantha Ratnayake.

The Trinitians have since being in and out of major tournaments as Royal College, Isipathana and St. Peter’s College took turns to dominate schools rugby making the stakes predictable until the rise again of Trinity like a Phoenix, the mythical bird that rose from the ashes.

Trinity have in their ranks ideal champion material needed to last the duration of the League and even their critics have come to realise they are the current best as one by one of the other teams in the fray are falling by the wayside.

In backline player Shan Althaf, Trinity have discovered probably the player of 2025 who has transformed himself from a whiz-kid goal kicker to a frontline try-scorer who is not afraid to run and hit the gaps. Collectively not a single Trinity player is out of place.

But Trinity will have to be wary of the Dark Horse in Wesley College which suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of Isipathana in a match that was ridden with disputes over try-scoring amid claims of questionable refereeing.

Wesley will now have to win all their remaining three matches against Royal, Trinity and S. Thomas’ to have any chance of grabbing a title since pocketing the Knock-out tournament prize in 2013 when they beat Trinity in a most unexpected way in the final refereed by veteran Nizam Jamaldeen.