Wesley and Kingswood for Blaze Trophy under floodlights

The officials and the two captains posing for a picture with the L.E. Blaze Trophy. Dhammika Herath, Principal of Kingswood (fourth from left), Avanka Fernando, Principal Wesley (third from right) flanked by Thaveesha Ekanayake Kingswood Captain), Dr. Muditha Abeykoon, President, Kingswood Union, Major General (Rtd) Sarada Samarakoon, Chairman Kingswood Rugby Committee, Hirosh Rupasinghe, Chairman Wesley Rugby Committee and Sandul Gammanpila, (Wesley Captain)
The two captains Thaveesha Ekanayake (Kingswood) and Sandul Gammanpila (Wesley_ posing with the L.E. Blaze Trophy. 

Pictures by Kithsiri de Mel

By M. Shamil Amit

All arrangements have been finalized for the traditional rugby encounter between two ‘brother schools’ Wesley College and Kingswood College scheduled to be kicked off under floodlights at the CR ground at Longdon Place on August 16.

This will be the first time that a traditional school rugby match is being played under lights.

This was revealed at a press conference held at the iconic 127 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 the generational rivalry and a century plus brotherhood that will come to life yet again in honour 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 honour as the school which introduced rugby to the local fraternity in 1891 and the first school match was played in 1906 between Kingswood and Trinity College 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 39th in the series and Wesley are the holders of the Blaze Trophy having won it three 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 and four matches ending in draws.

However with the inter-school rugby season having ended the Wesleyites come out as favorites as they ended as the league runner-up with a sound record in the league first and second round matches while Kinsgwood ended up as third best team in the Plate segment.

Another factor is that the Wesleyites will be coming into the game with utmost confidence after their thrilling win against S. Thomas’ College in a crucial Cup segment encounter which ensured them the second slot and Kingswood on the other hand underwent a defeat to DS Senanayake in a hard fought match.

However with Wesley seeking to retain the Blaze Trophy for the fourth successive year and Kingswood looking forward to breaking the six year hoodoo the supporters of both sides are assured and able to witness the two teams battling it out for supremacy.