Royal and S. Thomas’ clash for Gunaratne Trophy

By M. Shamil Amit

(Colombo) - The traditional rivals Royal College and S. Thomas’ College will clash for the Michael Gunaratne Memorial Trophy in their annual Inter-Schools rugby encounter at the Royal Sports Complex in Colombo tomorrow commencing at 4.15 p.m.

This will be the 61st match in the series with the Royalists leading the tally with 36 wins as against 19 wins by the Thomians and the rest ending in draws.

Last year, Royal came out winners with a comfortable 26-6 win and will be looking to retain the Trophy for the sixth year and on the other hand the Thomians will be seeking to regain the Trophy and their last win was in 2016.

But this time it’s going to be a closely contested affair as the two sides have had a successful stint in the recently concluded schools League Tournament.

Royal, led by Thivain Perera, ended up as the second-best team in their group with six wins from seven matches and the Thomians, led by Yehan Bulathsinghalage took third spot in their group with five wins from seven matches.

Royal, after the completion of the League Tournament, lost the first Super-Round encounter to Isipathana but they came back to beat the traditional rivals Trinity College in the second game.

However, last week, Royal lost both the Bradby Shield encounters to Trinity.

The Thomians on the other hand will be coming into the game with confidence after their fine performance against Isipathana in the President’s Trophy Knock-Out semi-final where they went down by five points (20-25), in a match which was decided on extra time.

Royal will bank on Skipper Thivain, Buwaneka Senanayake, Yehan Weerasuriya, Ayesh Shiyam, Nabeel Yahya, Afeel Farouk, Nazeer Mohamed, Didula Jayasuriya, Senuja Ranasinghe, Disas Pathirana, Disas Pathirana, Naqeeb Mohamed and Thineth Gamage, who have been in the forefront this season.

The Thomian Skipper Yehan will for sure be the cynosure of all eyes as he has had a successful stint and has been a match winner and he will bank on his deputy Akesh Fernando, Mayanka Dias, Kaveesh Lenagala, Dehan Senaratne, Mckyle Karunaratne, Udan Bulathsinghalage, Sehensha Liyanagunawardena, Akith Cooray and Joel Cameron to deliver the goods.