Colours Honours On The Line For UCD And Trinity
The anticipation is building ahead of tonight’s annual Colours match between UCD and Dublin University which takes place at the Belfield Bowl at 7.30pm. The Women’s game between the two arch rivals will be played as the curtain raiser on the Astro pitch (4pm).
Dublin University’s promotion bid fell just short in Ulster Bank League Division 1B last weekend, while UCD secured their top flight status with a morale-boosting win away to Cork Constitution.
Centre and captain Paddy Lavelle was a try scorer in Dublin University’s 41-20 final round win over Belfast Harlequins. In the build-up to the Colours game, both Lavelle and the rest of the squad were presented with their official Colours match jerseys by Leinster and Ireland star Jamie Heaslip.
Heaslip played in four Colours matches during his career and counts his playing time with the Trin, and those Colours fixtures in particular, as some of his most cherished career memories. He said it was ‘a huge honour’ to present the jerseys to the current Trinity players.
Hosts UCD have won the Colours clash for the last three years – 31-9 (Donnybrook, 2012), 17-10 (Belfield, 2013) and 19-12 (Donnybrook, 2014) – with Trinity’s most recent victory coming in 2011 when USA international Scott LaValla led them to a 31-22 success at Donnybrook.
The 63rd annual Colours match between UCD and Dublin University kicks off at 7.30pm tonight at the Belfield Bowl. The game remains one of the great traditions of club and University rugby in Ireland, and the earlier Women’s match between the student sides should also be a cracking contest – on the Astro pitch at 4pm.
