Michael Guneratne Trophy encounter:

Thomians have the edge over Royal

S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia who field a formidable team will go all out to regain the Michael Guneratne Trophy when they confront traditional rivals Royal College in their schools under 20 Division one rugby match at the Royal College Sports Complex tomorrow at 4.30 p.m.

The Thomians who came up with a superb performance a fortnight ago to hold the mighty Peterites to a 31-all draw suffered a shock 17-22 defeat at the hands of Kingswood last week but should make amends for it by overcoming the Royalists tomorrow.

The lads from Mount Lavinia who last won the Guneratne Trophy in 2005 under the leadership of Namal Rajapaksa with a smashing 20-5 win over Royal at Havelock Park should end the five year wait by beating the Royalists.

The Royalists who retained the Guneratne Trophy for the fourth successive year with a hard fought 33-27 win at Mount Lavinia last year scored a morale-boosting 38.37 win over Trinity in the Bradby Shield First Leg last week but will have to give a much better display if they hope to overcome the Thomians tomorrow.

The Royal 'eight' once again gave a sterling display to outplay their counterparts in the loose with No. 8 Shehan Pathirana being a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play ably supported by Yudith Karunaratne, Adil Jabber, Shehan Dassanayake, Iroshan de Alwis and Chilanka Samaraweera.

But their three quarters Mushin Faleel, Tharaka Wijesuriya, Dilshan Palihakkara and skipper Duminda Attygalle gave a pathetic display in defence which saw the Trinitians crossing their goal line on five occasions. Tomorrow the Thomian three quarters especially Sheveen Kapuwatte, Anuruddha Wilwara, Jeremy Fernando and Devin Jayasinghe should test the weak Royal defence to the hilt with their powerful runs.

The Thomian forwards spearheaded by skipper Rajindra Gunasekera too have given of their best this season and could match upto the powerful Royal 'eight'.

Royal's place kickers Arshad Jamaldeen and Mushin Faleel came good at last in the Bradby shield match and a repeat performance should see the Reid Avenue school emerge victories.

The Michael Guneratne Trophy was on offer for the first time in 1962 and since then 48 matches have been played with Royal winning 25 and the Thomians emerging victorious on 17 occasions with five games ending in draws. The 1979 match was not played due to a dispute between the two schools regarding the venue of the match.