Trinitians disprove Thomian grit

Sharm de Alwis

Nobody wants to go with me to Kandy. Molli went; he died. Dabar went; he died. Quentin went; he died. Lucky went; he says he died a thousand deaths.

With such compelling reasons I went in a syndicated 18-seater and was the only representative of the hoary past. There were those from the glory past and a couple from the team which performed the Rolling Maul of the three-quarters in 1998, the year of Prasanna Jayawardena's captaincy.

Urged by me and prompted by his Vice-Captain Suren Hulangamuwa , Denzil told of how it was done. Scrum-half S.N.Ching stole the ball from the scrum and stealthily gave it to Shanaka Kumara for Denzil, Prasanna, Mediwake and Zamir Mohammed to join and weave a pattern of deceit never seen before or ever since. it was executed to perfection, having been drilled for days on end by the crafty Quentin Israel, arguably the finest coach that Trinity and St Thomas' have had.

As we wended our way to historic Bogambara sensibilities were tense because the Thomian captain Rohitha Rajapakse had predicted a 50-50 possibility of the win-lose ratio despite Trinity's sweeping wins in their two previous games of the season against Isipatana and Vidyartha. The Thomians also had recorded two handsome wins against St Peter's and Dharmarajah.

The game commenced without any shadow sparring but with the intensity of battle and the Thomians calling the shots with a converted try in the first half and Trinity deprived of a push-over try by the erratic whistle of referee Aruna Jayasekera.

On resumption of play a fine drop kick by the Thomians had their supporters whetting their anticipatory cup of joy. But Trinity proved that Thomian grit is not sufficient to stay onslaughts waged wave upon ocean wave. The pressure applied in dollops had the Thomians caving in and even though the referee resorted to slowing down the game, a push-over Trinity try was not allowed by the referee who was destined on the day to blow like a blustering bumble bee.

Not to be cowed by strictures of an incompetent tution master, the Trinitians were galvanised into action. They re-grouped their resources and scored in a manner that could not be denied. Even though the goal posts were not shifted the fair conversion was ruled out by all three officials.

Next was aborted a definite Trinity try when the ball carrier who was speeding with an open field before him was called back by the shrill whistle. The advantage, however, was granted to Trinity after the haulting fault.

The gods who reside in every hill and dale of the Kandyan kingdom were outraged as much as the vast ocean of Trinity supporters who had converged from far and wide.

Justice denied gives vent to kangaroo court action. A breezy run gave Trinity the equaliser and with minutes left for the death whistle was applied pressure, pressure and more pressure before the Trinitians ripped a passage from their College Song , "When the last charge goes thundering - towards the twilight goal" and with yet another glorious try by the center.

A certain 'accredited evaluator' who is peeved when incompetence of referees is highlighted in the Press may now remove his blinkers and stop pontificating.