Thomians out to regain Gunaratne Trophy today

Chris Dhambarage

S Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia will be looking to regain the Michael Gunaratne Trophy after a lapse of five years when they take on the arch rivals Royal College in their annual inter school rugby encounter at the Royal Sports Complex in Reid Avenue today.

The Thomians have not tasted success since 2005 where they triumphed 20-5 at Havelock Park under the leadership of Namal Rajapaksa.

This time they seem to have a great chance of regaining the trophy despite having lost their previous game against Kingswood College Kandy 17-22 on their home grounds.

S Thomas’ are currently placed third in the Singer division one league tournament points table having recorded five victories against Wesley, St. Anthony’s, Trinity College Kandy, Prince of Wales College Moratuwa and Dharmaraja College Kandy.

But their best effort probably came two weeks ago when they held the formidable St. Peter’s team to a 31 all draw on their home grounds at Mount Lavinia.

Last week they suffered their second defeat while going down to Kingswood College Kandy 17-22 after having earlier lost to Isipatana College (24-30).

Royal of course will be hoping to produce an improved performance after their Bradby Shield match against the traditional rivals Trinity College where they scored a narrow 38-37 win last week on their home grounds.

This was a great comeback from the Royal side after having suffered three successive defeats at the hands of St. Peter’s, Isipatana and Kingswood College Kandy respectively. They are currently placed fourth in the Singer division one league tournament points table with five victories.

The teams:

Royal: Yudith Karunaratne, Adil Jabbar, Iroshan de Alwis, Wasim Mohamed, Thilina Ratnayake, Shehan Pathirana, Shehan Dassanayake, Lahiru Pavithra, Deen Cassim and Arshad Jamaldeen, Duminda Attygalle (captain), Hilmy Razeek, Chamara Dabare, Dilshan Palihakkara, Mushin Faleel.

S Thomas’: Malindra Ching, Sanjeewa Ahangama, Anjula de Silva, Ishendra Pilapitiya, Dinuk de Silva, Sudarshan Muthuthantri, Devini Illeppeli, Rajindra Gunasekera (captain), Avendra Dharmadasa and Randhika Peiris, Kishan Wickremasinghe, Shavin Kapuwatte, Anuruddha Willwara, Vivian Rudra, Jeromy Fernando.