Royal-Isipatana clash on April 30

One of the most looked forward to confrontations in the schools rugby calendar, the encounter between Royal College and Isipatana College for the Milroy Fernando Trophy will be played on April 30 at the Royal Sports Complex.

Isipatana led by Sri Lanka under 19 player Prasad Devinda is laden with 13 coloursmen and have registered two impressive wins over Dharmaraja (37-15) and St Anthony's (31-3) in the two matches played so far.

Royal captained by Sri Lanka Youth player Shehan Pathirana have the services of eight coloursmen and two other senior players but struggled to beat St Joseph's (38-31) and Wesley (33-32) in their two outings.

Isipatana won the trophy last year with a resounding 27-5 win over Royal and will go all out to retain the trophy for the second successive year. Royal's main problem this year has been their weak defence and lack of fitness which was very much evident in the two matches played so far.

Against the Josephians the lads from Reid Avenue were leading 35-10 midway in the second half but struggled to beat them, while against Wesley they were leading 17-nil after 15 minutes play, but finally scraped through to victory.

Royal last won the trophy in 2009 with a convincing 22-3 win over Isipatana but they will have to improve their fitness and defence if they hope to regain the trophy.

The Milroy Fernando Trophy was first offered for competition between the two schools by Colonel Dudley Fernando in memory of his son Milroy who died in a landmine explosion in Omanthai, Vavuniya in January, 1986.

The inaugural match played at Havelock Park in 1986 ended in a thriller with Isipatana full back Thushara Bandara firing across the match winning penalty two minutes before the final whistle to give them a 11-9 win.

In the following year Isipatana's Pradeep Lakshantha put over a 40 metre penalty to force a 13-all draw at Sugathadasa Stadium.

In 1988, Royal propelled by a hat-trick of tries by No 8 Lasitha Guneratne, scored a resounding 24-9 win at Pedris Park. Twenty one matches have been played in the series so far with the encounter not been played in 1991, 1994, 1995 and 2007.