“All I could think of was my final Bradby” Azman Khan Royal Player (2011-2013)
We are all asked to do impossible tasks daily and today I have the impossible task of explaining to you ‘what it is like to play a Bradby’. It is hard to put into words what it’s like being a part of the Bradby. Ten years later, I will be having an outside view of the ‘battle field.’ How strange it feels not to be preparing to face the lions: be it the training; be it the determination or be it motivation by past players. To roar out of the tunnel, to the sound of thunderous applause and shouts of ‘R-O-Y-A-L’; to stand in line and sing the college anthem; to charge at the trinity line up; to hear the sweet sound of bodies crashing when tackled hard are some moments that will be sorely missed. Even so, the memories of the Bradby games I played, will tide me over the regret of not being a part of this year’s team.
My journey in rugby began when I was just a ten year old, when a friend encouraged me to join practices. My first coach was none other than the great Summah Navarathne sir. What really drove me was that he said that I had a natural talent for the game. Discovering that I had a knack for the sport, I continued to attend regular training. At the time we only played tag rugby so I remember watching the big aiyas running around and smashing into each other and wondered why they go to such lengths. Until I realized what the ‘BRADBY’ was all about. As time dragged on I moved from under 12 to 14 to 16 and even in that age group we had such a drive and passion to win our Bradby matches in hopes that it will contribute something to the 1st XV and give them a small morale boost but the more we played the more I got obsessed with playing the Bradby and being a part of it. The days I dreamed of our team taking the field was all that was filled in my mind and it was all I could ever imagine. The first person from our group who adorned that jersey was Rimze Jamaldeen and after our games we sat on the sidelines of the Bogambara Stadium and watched the Bradby. Seeing Rimze play and score those two amazing tries still plays in my head up to date. He single handedly saved the game and we won that Bradby and the atmosphere was amazing. As our season ended I realized just how much I wanted to be on that field. How much I was willing to sacrifice just to be on that field even if it was for just 10 minutes and to my surprise, I took that very field the very next year.
My first Bradby was the first leg played in Kandy in 2011. The evening I received the Bradby jersey was the most memorable day of my life. It was late evening after a challenging practice session, there was a nervous expectation in the air and I waited with bated-breath hoping to hear my name. For years I had been dreaming of the day I would be selected to the first XV and that dream was finally realized. It all began when Mr. Theo Seraphim asked me to practice with the first XV when I was a U-18 player. I was sitting for my O/Levels that year and had to minimize my practice hours. However, my dad took the decision to send me for regular practice with the first XV team, which I think was the best decision he ever made. Of course, it meant longer nights with late classes for me but I was willing to make the sacrifice. The training sessions were nothing like what I had experienced before: they were intense, demanding and grueling. At the end of each session we were never sure of being able to wake up the next morning. It was a completely different experience for me interacting with players like Shehan Pathirana or Aadil Jabbar who were our captain and co-captain. I was so overwhelmed by our captain’s strength and speed and his determination to win, it felt like it cut through my body and it drove me to work twice as hard. If that one man had the resolve to push his body further than his limits why couldn’t I? I never understood the answer until a few years later.
As we sprinted into the Bogambara Stadium, the whole crowd erupted in a loud cheer. I looked around at the sea of heads and was completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere in the stands. Royal flags and Trinity flags were waving about; crackers resounded in the arena; battle cries were yelled – it was astounding! My heartbeat was so loud that it drowned all the stupendous noise at the stadium. Standing in line with our arms across the shoulders of our fellow mates, clutching the school crest on our jersey with our right hands, our hearts swelling with pride and emotion, we belted out our favourite song – which had been sung a hundred times before but never with such gusto- ‘Thy spirit first to life awoke…’
After the school anthems were sung, we took our positions in the field – me at the right wing. It was nerve racking and I found I was still awestruck, when my astute captain – Shehan Pathirana – ambled up to me, put his muscular hand over my shoulder and said, “This is the moment you have worked so hard for, don’t worry about anything, just play your game, I will be there for you.” His encouraging words calmed my nerves and helped me to focus all my energies to the task at hand. It was a dream I still remember – that first feeling, up to date. It is forever etched in my mind. The sensation of achieving something that I have always been dreaming of was running through all the nerves and veins in my body; to be able to play with some amazing players and to be able to call myself a lucky Royalist – one of the 15 that can play a BRADBY among 8000 students – was amazing. It is basically what you call a chance of a lifetime and I took it and I made it mine. During that first game we played like champions and we gave everything that we had.
As time passed, I finally entered my final year in College and with it my final Bradby. I finally understood why Shehan Aiyya pushed himself so hard in my first year. I could never fathom it until I understood that I’ll be taking the field only for one last year. Every game would go by and there would be a countdown: 9 games left to 8 games left and it was hard on all of our last year’s who were playing or even a part of the team. It was a difficult year not because we had a difficult time but just because the thought of it all ending loomed over us. It was hard to imagine that I had played rugby for 10 years now and after a few more games it would all be over. It was all I could think of. Whether it was during the day at school or lying in my bed at night all I could think of was my final Bradby; taking the field for one last time; singing the school song one last time and fighting with my comrades on the battlefield to the bitter end one last time.
I played as the first centre this time around. I had settled into being a burly centre with the responsibility of charging through the opposition creating opportunities to score. And charge I did. The feeling when you hear the ‘thwack!’ of bodies thudding and finding your opponent on the ground is great. ‘No one goes through me’ was the thought that was drumming in my head. Dragging three or four Trinity players with me gave me the utmost satisfaction; they had to work hard to drag me down. Unfortunately, we lost the first leg with a small margin. All was not lost – we would be playing them next in our territory, which was a completely different arena. There were so many reasons as to why we lost and people would constantly remind us. I would hear people say ‘no point going to that second leg we are going to lose anyway’. Most people would think that this would de-motivate us, but it did not. Instead it did the opposite; it fired us up even more. For that final week, we pushed ourselves above and beyond. It’s either we suffer now and live like champions or spend the rest of our lives hiding in a corner. We gave every practice session more than our bodies could offer day after day, practice after practice, until it was finally the ‘day of judgment; ‘Do and Die or Live and Cry’.
The second leg created an uproar when the Trinitians did the ‘haka’ which is what the all famous All Blacks of New Zealand do before any of their games which would mean challenging their opponents. We took it head on running straight into them and getting into their faces. ‘Absolutely no one can come into our home ground and do as they please’ was our message. In our fortress where we spill blood, where we have had countless injuries and also where we share every moment of our time, nobody can come into our home and do as they please is what all of us were thinking as we charged into them. However, that set the tempo of the game as the Royalists were eager to settle the scores. We played like champions. The Trinitian’s were facing a team that was obsessed and determined. We won the game with great aplomb but were short of a few points to reclaim the shield. It was obvious that Royal definitely was the better team that day and we walked tall that day having won the match. There was not a dry eye in the dressing room; be it due to the disappointment of losing the shield or be it the realization that it was the final Bradby for some of us. Playing or even being a part of Bradby is a life changing event for us players and I speak for myself when I say, it was a way of moulding and creating myself to be the best possible human being I can be; to be able to face all odds especially when everyone is against you. You learn how to fight and come back when people put you down and trample you; you learn that no matter how much you feel something is lost you can always get it back with effort and determination. It defines you; it creates you; it makes you someone you never imagined yourself to be. Simply put, it is life changing and you can carry all this with you as you take on the new future that lies ahead of you.
Is a game ever just a game? From my experience I will tell you that everything you do has an impact on your life and the biggest impact that affected my life was the Bradby. It made me and moulded me into the man I am today and not just me many others who are yet to come and those who have already lived this experience.
For many, Bradby is just a game. For us players, it is life itself. We live for the day we hopefully would don the jersey; then live for the game and then live for the day we carry the shield. When these days are past, you live for the memories. So my final words to you are: in life, if nothing is difficult to achieve, then it is not worth achieving.
