The only trophy we won that day...

Thirty seconds more, four points off the bradby, line out to Royal, forty meters out… The balls thrown it’s not taken..Royal fumble, whistle blows, it’s over. A life times dream comes crashing down. it’s done! Royal win the match but lose the shield. In a matter of seconds the difference between a dream and a nightmare is lived out.
To play rugby at Royal is not just a gift. It is not given to you. You have to take it. To be one amongst the thousands is not easy. To mentally and physically be ready to feel the pressure of thousands on you is almost impossible.

They say rugby is a ruffians game played by gentleman, they say it’s a game where fourteen help the fifteenth to score the try, they say it’s maddening. I’ll give it to them all. It’s all correct. But more than any of it it’s when the final whistle blows and all the dust has settled and you know that all you have to show for it is cuts and bruises and broken bones and at that moment when you know that it’s all worth it every round run, every push up, every sit up, every jump to try and touch the cross bar, every moment lived with those 30 odd people is worth it.
To dream is easy, all you have to do is find something to dream about, to set about achieving it is not so easy, to achieve it is near impossible. To play for royal was a dream. Only a few get the chance.22 of the best of the best of the best will be chosen this year and they too will live their dream.

I was twelve the first time I went for serious rugger practice at Royal when I was taken by a now Sri Lankan player to the sports complex when the question of for how long I could do 6 inches for was posed to me by the under 13 captain of the time, after holding it for 30 seconds I was told that I would be a good player because I had fitness…well its upto the captain to decide I guess…..on the contrary I didn’t play for the team that year, I didn’t even play ‘B’ team so much for his predictions…

Although what I dint know was the great journey that I was to be a part of with and without these two individuals along the way, who I would say have stepped far from their duties of friendship during the past 8 odd years to help me play Royal College 1st XV.

You would have heard this a million times by now but to play 1st XV for Royal College is every royal rugby players dream. It transcends you. it makes you a man. People I’ve met who didn’t know anything about rugby or a bradby shield have been amazed by the sheer commitment, passion and determination that drives a royalist during the season.

The competition the seriousness is so intense that my family have repeatedly told me when I was playing under 13 and under 15 that I’m not playing the world cup but what they don’t understand is when you put that jersey on whatever your age group is, is that losing is not an option. Hell! It just does not exist.

If at that age losing is not an option, losing the bradby shield is ……………..unimaginable, its losing everything you’ve trained for, its losing your dream, not everyone achieves their dream, not everyone gets a chance to live it hence not everyone loses it but to those of us at either Royal or Trinity to lose it is just well to put it mildly is to say you’ll probably never get over it.

It’s amazing what a game can do to you, it’s amazing that when you put everything into that one before the last sprint and you think how the hell am I going to do that next one…all you need is that fat dark bugger who never sprints say ‘lets race this’ and you just are faster than you’ve ever been. it’s not just a game, it’s not just for the passion of it, it’s not just for that extra inch that you’ll put your body on the line, it’s not just for the glory after the game, it’s for all of this yes. But most of all its to prove to yourself that you are indeed good enough to be in the place that your childhood heroes are, it’s to be among the immortals, the greats the legends. It’s for this that you’ll give an arm and a leg to play for Royal College.

On the 28th of June 2008 we did lose the bradby shield but what we didn’t lose was our pride. We went there to win, we came up close we could almost touch it but as fate would have it the record consecutive wins during the ‘8’ years would have to come to an end, we tried we failed but we were not disgraced…
The only trophy we won that day was the blood, sweat, tears that we left on that ground”.