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The eagerly awaited confrontation between traditional rivals Royal College, Colombo and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia for the Michael Guneratne Trophy will take place on July 26 (Saturday) at Havelock Park.

The Michael Guneratne Trophy was first offered for competition between the two schools in 1962 and since then 40 matches have been played in the series with Royal winning 19 and S. Thomas 16 with five games ending in draws. The match was not played in 1979 due to a dispute between the two schools regarding the dates of the match.

There have been many memorable moments in the Royal-Thomian series: In 1973 Royal led by Michael Muller registered the then highest score of the series with a 34-0 win at Longden Place with a dazzling display of open rugby and retained the trophy in the following year with a hard fought 4-nil win at Havelock Park with flanker Safu Mansoor scoring the solitary try.

In 1975 S. Thomas' regained the trophy when centre P. L. Munasinghe scored two spectacular tries to give them a 8-3 win over Royal at Longden Place. They retained it in the following year when the match ended in a six-all draw when Thomian Centre Bogstra scored under the posts five minutes before the final whistle after collecting a clearance kick from Royal's fly half Skanda Fernando to give Dayalan Subramaniam an easy kick at goal. Earlier Royal opened scoring through a try by No. 8 Saman Jayasinghe which was converted by Hosney Cader. In 1977 the Thomians led by Pat Jacobs retained the trophy with a 7-3 win at Longden Place. The 1978 game too ended in a six-all draw at Havelock Park with the Thomians keeping the trophy in their custody.

Royal wrested back the trophy with a thrilling 10-7 win in 1980 and retained it in the following year (1981) with a 6-3 win with Johann Muller firing across two penalties. In 1982 the Thomians regained the trophy with a grand 13-3 win helped by two splendid tries by centre Bhagya Wickramanayake and winger Johann Wijesinghe.

In 1983 Royal clinched the trophy once again when fly half Sampath Agalawatte put over two penalties in the last three minutes to give Royal a thrilling 18-14 victory. The Royalists made it six-in-a row by emerging victorious by 9-3 (1984), 8-4 (1985), 12-6 (1986), 30-0 (1987) and 11-10 (1988). In 1989 the Thomians broke the six year hoodoo when prop forward Mark Ratnayake fired across a 25 metre penalty to give them a 3-0 win at Havelock Park. They retained the trophy in the following year with a convincing 13-0 victory at the Sugathadasa Stadium with Second rower Charya de Saram and fly half Chirantha de Zoysa scoring a try each.

In 1991 the Thomians led by Charya de Saram registered their highest score in the series by thrashing Royal 22-0 at the same venue helped by four splendid tries by Sean Dwight, Narein Perera, Ranjith Seneviratne and Felix Dias Abeysinghe (Jnr). In 1992 Royal wrested back the trophy with a 10-6 win with Dilan Wickramasinghe scoring the solitary try and Jaliya Wijeratne converting it and putting over a penalty. In the following year (1993) the Thomians regained the trophy with a hard fought 10-5 victory with prop Vajira Wijewardena and Skipper Ajantha Coorey scoring a try each.

In 1994 Royal bagged the trophy by edging out S. Thomas 5-3 with winger Kamal Ganewatte scoring the match winning try. In 1995 Hans Billimoria's Thomians wrested back the trophy by emerging victorious 8-0 helped by a try by Amar Ranasinghe and a penalty by Asela Tennakoon.

In 1996 Royal took custody of the trophy with a 15-10 win and retained it in the following year when the match ended in a 9-all draw with the game turning out to be a kicking duel between Royal's Rananja Gonaduwa and Thomian Ahamed Rahaman who fired across three penalties each. In 1998 in another close game an injury time try by centre Kishan Samarasinghe gave the Royalists a 20-13 win and Royal retained the trophy in 1999 with a convincing 26-14 win.

In the year 2000 the Thomians ended the four year wait with a 14-11 win at the Sugathadasa Stadium helped by two fine tries by the Gunatilleke twins Jeevan and Jayan.

In 2001 Royal scored a run away 30-nil win at Longden Place with Rajith Jayasundera, Lakshman Dissanayake and Dushan Lewke scoring a try each. Full back Dave Wijewardena converted all three tries and put over three penalties which gave him a personal tally of 15 points. Last year Royal led by Zulki Hamid established a new series record with a smashing 38-3 victory which enabled the Reid Avenue school to win the trophy for the 19th time in the series. (R.S.)

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