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Thoras
clash with Royal for ‘Michael Gunaratne Trophy’
It’s
anybody’s game
By
M. Naushad Amit
Royal
and S. Thomas’ may not be among the top three in
schools rugby this season, but any contest between these
two time-honoured schools arouses a great deal of passion
amongst the supporters of both schools.
They meet for the ‘Michael Gunaratne Trophy’
for the 47th time at the Royal College Sports Complex
on Saturday with both schools equally matched to dish
out what could turn out to be best game for the season.
Royal go into this encounter having lost the first leg
of the ‘Bradby Shield’ to Trinity 12-24 while
the Thomians are also recovering from a shock 15-19
defeat at the hands St Joseph’s, a division I ‘B’
team.
In comparison both teams have defeated the reigning
school rugby champs St. Peter’s but were nailed
down by Trinity and Kingswood. At the outset S. Thomas’
has done slightly better than Royal, also beating Isipathana.
Both teams will be going out this week after agonising
defeats received last week at the hands of their traditional
rivals. With shattered memories and suffering from demoralising
defeats both teams look equal in their mind-set and
performances.
The Royal team is led by winger Suvinda Lenaduwa. His
deputy and fly-half Naren Dhasan is a great asset to
the team. Royal’s strength will be their No.8 playmaker
Bilal Hassen. Hassen played a vital role in the ‘Bradby’
scoring both tries but still couldn’t prevent Royal
from losing. “Hopefully there will be a few changes
for this week’s game. Our regular hooker played
in the Bradby with a slight injury and the full back
might be replaced as he too has sustained an injury.
The good news for us is that we have a good bench. With
that confidence we will go out and do the winning. As
usual we will go out and play our usual game. There
is going to be no change with that. It is also a league
match and played for a trophy. But we will count it
as just another game,” said the Royal Master-in-charge,
Anura Wanigasinghe who is confident that Royal can retain
the trophy.
S. Thomas’ is led by Rohitha Rajapakse and is well
backed by his deputy Devon Hallock. They possess a strong
pack and have a fairly good back line. The playmakers
of the side are No.8 Rajapakse, flanker Hallock and
full back Manjith Thammanagamage. Skipper, Rohitha will
be hoping to repeat the feat his elder brother Namal
achieved three years back.
“The boys have put away last week’s defeat
and are determined to register a win in this encounter.
This game is special for us. The loss taught us a good
lesson. We will go flat out to offset last week’s
loss and the boys are confident,” said a spokesman
for S. Thomas’.
Comparing their performances in the league, the Thomians
are placed at No.4 in the inter-school points table
with five wins and two losses in seven matches, and
an average of 3.07 while their rivals Royal are one
notch beneath at No. 5 with four wins and three losses
in seven matches with an average of 2.50. Both schools
have got one match left for the season and it will be
against each other this weekend.
S. Thomas’ have recorded wins against St. Anthony’s
(16-12), St. Peter’s (22-19), Dharmaraja (22-20),
Isipathana (17-15) and Vidyartha (64-nil) while losing
to Trinity (10-15) and Kingswood (7-29). Royal began
their season with two devastating losses against Kingswood
(7-13) and Isipathana (12-17) and boosted themselves
to record four successive wins against Vidyartha (29-nil),
Dharmaraja (39-22), St. Anthony’s (25-12) and St.
Peter’s (17-12).
The annual rugby encounter between the two schools was
initiated in 1962 and had ended in a draw. Four more
draws have occurred in 1967, 1976, 1978 and 1997 altogether
adding five draws to the tally of 46 matches. Royal
has won the encounter 23 times while S. Thomas’
has 17 wins under their belt. In 1979 the encounter
did not take place due to a dispute regarding the match
dates.
The record for the highest score in the series came
from Royal in 2002 under the captaincy of Zulki Hameed
which was 39-3 which broke the 22-nil record established
by S. Thomas’ under Charya de Saram in 1991. The
last occasion the Thomians won the encounter was in
2005 under Skipper Namal Rajapakse. Royal won in the
following years and last year they recorded a narrow
22-18 win to retain the trophy under the captaincy of
Manil Abeyratne.
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