Thomians out to blow-up depleted Royal today

Thushan JAYASURIYA

S.Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia who are a vastly improved side will go all out to beat a depleted Royal College outfit when they clash in the 50th Gunaratne Trophy match at the Royal Sports Complex today at 4.30 pm.

The Thomians , though playing in the ‘B’ division, went down fighting to St.Joseph's ( 26 – 37 ) and St.Peter's ( 24 – 36 ) and will go all out to topple the morale shattered Royalists who suffered three successive defeats in their last three matches to Trinity ( 11 – 34 ) and ( 20 – 36 ) and Isipatana ( 22 – 34 ) having begun the season on a high note with seven successive victories and at once stage were leading the ‘A’ division league points table.

To add to their woes, the Reid Avenue School will miss the services of hard-tackling Flanker Andrew Siriwardena, outstanding Full back Damien Ratwatte and Skipper Arshad Jamaldeen due to injury.Siriwardenas place will be taken by Pasindu Perera while Ratwatte's place as Full back will be filled by Centre Bhanuka Gamage while the vacant Centre berth will be occupied by regular winger Nimshan Jayawardena.

The experienced Rimzi Jamaldeen will fill the pivotal fly half berth. The match should turn out to be a battle between the Royal “Eight” and Thomian three quarters. The marrauding Royal forwards spearheaded by Prop Eroshan De Alwis and Lock Forward Wasim Bawa should once again reign supreme in the loose ably supported by Lahiru Pavithra, Shuaib Mutaliph, Kaveen Perera, Yasun Weerasuriya,and strongly built Number Eight Madhusha Kularatne.

The forte of the Thomians are their back division . They have an experienced halves combination in Chanditha Samarasinghe and Devin Jayasinghe who have clicked smoothly while Hasaka Senanayake, Nayanesh Jirasinghe, Isa Ibrahim and Keshan Wanigasuriya are hard runners who are capable of tearing apart the Royal defence with Fullback Aathiff Jawath also joining the line in attack.

Royal's biggest problem this season is the lack of fitness and paid the penalty in the last three matches and also made a big blunder by playing a half-fit Arshad Jamaldeen in the vital fly half position which crippled their three quarter moves. Their threes will have to give a much better display if they hope to emerge victorius and retain the Gunaratne trophy for the seventh successive year.

Of the 49 matches played so far in the series, Royal have won 27 matches while the Thomians have emerged victorious on 17 occasions with five games ending in draws in the series which began in 1962 with the match not being played in 1979.

Royal holds the record for the three biggest wins in the series- ( 39 – 3 in 2002, 38 – 12 in 2010 and 35 – nil in 2006 while the biggest margin of victory for the Thomians was in 1991 when they won 22 nil at the Sugathadasa Stadium.The lads from Mount Lavinia last won the Guneratne Trophy in 2005 under the leadership of Namal Rajapaksa with 20 points to 5 win at Havelock park.

The Royalists wrested back the shield in 2006 with an easy 35 – nil win at the Royal Sports Complex and have retained it for six successive years.

The teams

Royal: Eroshan De Alwis(Captain), Lahiru Pavithra, Kaveen Perera, Wasim Bawa, Shuaib Mutaliph, Pasindu Perera, Yasun Weerasuriya, Madhusha Kularatne, Ravishan Dassanayake, Rimzi Jamaldeen, Ijaz Bohoran, Devin De Silva, Nimshan Jayawardena, Sachin Unamboowe, Bhanuka Gamage.

S.Thomas: Randika Peiris (Captain), K. Muththetuwagama,Supun Hasthimuni,Maneesha Kurukulasuriya, D.A.Peiris, D.J.de Silva, Rahantha Abeykoon, Dhanoj de Silva, Naheed Jainudeen, Chanditha Samarasinghe, Devin Jayasinghe, Hasaka Senanayake, Nayanesh Jirasinghe, Isa Ibrahim, Keshan Wanigasuriya, Aathiff Jawath.