Royal have the edge over Thomians

Out to retain Michael Guneratne trophy tomorrow:

Royal College who suffered a shock 5-40 defeat at the hands of Trinity College in the Bradby Shield return match will go all out to make amends for it by overcoming traditional rivals S Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia in their schools 'A' Division segment one rugby match for the Michael Gunaratne Trophy at S Thomas grounds Mount Lavinia tomorrow.

The lads from Reid Avenue won last year's encounter at the Royal Sports complex by 38-12 to retain the trophy for the fifth successive year.

The Royalists have won eight matches in a row this year but will face a strong challenge from the Thomians who have been practising hard for the last three weeks under the watchful eyes of their young coach Esala de Livera Tennakoon.

Royal have beaten St Joseph's (38-31), Wesley (33-32), Isipatana (11-10), Kingswood (33-25), Thurstan (72-0), Dharmaraja (50-5), Trinity (33-25) and St Anthony's (40-13).

In contrast the Thomians have failed to live upto expectations recording a solitary win over Dharmaraja (34-25) while losing to Wesley (12-18), Trinity (6-75), St Anthony's (13-63), Kingswood (6-63), Isipatana (3-77), Thurstan (8-22) and St Peter's (7-59) in their eight outings.

Royal will miss the services of skipper and No 8 Shehan Pathirana who is away with the Sri Lanka youth team in Hong Kong and his place will be taken by lock forward Lahiru Pavithra. Rizwan Muthaliph comes into the side to bind with Malaka Ihalagedera in the second row.

In the back division too Royal have made some significant changes. Ravishan Dassanayake has been brought in to operate from the base of the scrum and will pair off with Arshad Jamaldeen. Regular scrum half Dileepa Jayatilleke has been shifted to the centre berth and will play beside Rimzie Jamaldeen (who played as full back in all the matches played so far). Regular centre Damien Ratwatte who is a utility player will be manning the last line of defence.

The Michael Gunaratne Trophy was offered for competition between the two schools in 1962 and since then 48 matches have been played except in 1979 when the match was not played due to a dispute regarding the dates of the match. Royal have won 26 matches while the Thomians have emerged victorious on 17 occasions with five matches ending in draws. The Royalists have triumphed for the last five years by 35-0 (2006), 22-18 (2007), 24-5 (2008), 37-33 (2009) and 38-12 (2010) while the Thomians last won in 2005 by 20-5 at Havelock Park under the captaincy of No 8 Namal Rajapaksa.