Trinity College rugby powered by Zesta Pure Ceylon Tea

Trinity College, Kandy, one of the first schools in Sri Lanka to begin playing rugby, commenced this season with firm resolve to win the schools’ rugby league as well as to defend the esteemed Bradby Shield. Fueling this determination and providing the players with the necessary funding for training, nutrition, fitness and equipment for the second consecutive year is Zesta, Watawala Marketing Ltd’s flagship premium Pure Ceylon Tea brand. While the First 15 team will carry the branding and insignia of Zesta, all age-groups at Trinity College benefit from Zesta’s sponsorship.

Speaking about the continuation of this partnership with Trinity College rugby, Watawala Marketing Managing Director Vish Govindasamy said, “Today the world has become a very competitive place, and to Win, we need to be thorough professionals. Our Business philosophy embodies this reality. When it comes to Sport, the same holds true. Schools which are organised and professional in their strategy are able to develop sportsmen across all age groups, and therefore are able to sustain a high pedigree of sporting achievements, year on year. This is what Trinity aims to do, with their Rugby Development Programme. Watawala is a Tea company, and there is a strong and seamless connection between Planters and Trinity. Therefore, it was only natural that when the school came to us with a three year comprehensive development plan for Trinity Rugby, we agreed to partner them through our flagship brand Zesta. Zesta believes in the “relentless pursuit of quality” and we wish Trinity the same with their Rugby Programme and their pursuit of quality.”

Stating that Zesta has helped the school with this generous sponsorship, Trinity College Principal Brig. W.G.K Aryaratne said, “I hope that with this support from Zesta our rugby players will be able to become the league champions. We also hope to produce 10 to 12 school players for national level rugby.”

Remarking on the relationship that Trinity College has had with Zesta, Aryaratne said, “The friendship with Zesta goes back many years as several of our exceptional old boys are now with Zesta. This has made the sponsorship more genial and binding.”

Rugby Scrummage, an organisation of old Trinitians who have played the game at the highest level, has meticulously formulated a three-year plan for the improvement of rugby at Trinity College. Head of Rugby Strategy, Rugby Scrummage, Rohan Abayakoon elaborated on the plan in that, “With the sponsorship of Zesta, we have now implemented a comprehensive strategy for the development of the game in the school, which targets six and seven-year-olds right through to the First 15. We are now in the second year of that program. The progress has been good and we hope to complete the program on schedule by the end of 2013. As part of the program we have also developed a lot of off-field activities such as a comprehensive medical program to ensure players are injury-free and an initiative to improve nutrition with supplements and diet plans.”

Abayakoon stressed that being able to employ experienced and efficient coaches has been instrumental in the success of the program. “Recruiting a technical consultant from New Zealand over this period of three years to implement the program has been significant. That was possible purely because of Zesta’s involvement and their sponsorship. Neil Foote is a Division One coach in New Zealand, who also has a lot of experience in the development of rugby programs from junior age groups. He has also played Division One rugby in New Zealand. We also have a First 15 coach, Nilufer Ibrahim, a national player who has extensive coaching experience.”

Thus far, the program has shown clear results and has benefitted the sport at Trinity College. “Trinity had an extremely successful season last year,” said Abayakoon. “We anticipate an equally good season this year. We were hoping that at the end of the three years, we could consistently compete at least at the top three level in schools rugby every year. That was the objective of implementing the strategy. We ended up third last year, we won the Bradby Shield with record breaking scores and we won the knock out championship. That was actually a bonus because we were expecting those results only in three years. We undertook a pre-season tour to Dubai where the team performed exceptionally well. We also won our first two games of the season reasonably well.”

Neil Foote, Rugby Consultant for Trinity College, and Nilufer Ibrahim, Coach of the First 15 team, consider the players as a professional sports team and they believe that this would not be possible if not for the support of Zesta. Commenting on the team’s performance, they said, “In the past, they would play well at the Bradby Shield but not consistently. We’re trying to change their mindset because historically, the only game that’s ever been important to Trinity has been the Bradby Shield. Over time they haven’t had much success over league championships. We’re trying to make them feel that every game is important.”

The players too have responded magnificently to the program. There is a huge difference in their approach to the game compared to preceding years. “With the help of our coaches, our techniques have improved immensely,” said Kaneel Seneviratne, Captain of the First 15 team. “During the season we made some mistakes but have played well. We have learned from those mistakes and hope to be unbeaten this year.”