Royal to take cricket revenge from rugby meet St Thomas’ today

Royal College will be looking to retain the Michael Gunaratne Trophy when they take on arch rivals S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in their annual inter- school rugby encounter in the Singer ‘A’ Division league rugby tournament first round game at Mount Lavinia commencing at 4.00pm today and take a sweet revange from the defeat they received from the annual cricket encounter.

This traditional encounter was inaugurated in 1962 and the first match ended in a draw. Present tally stands 31 wins to Royal and 19 to S.Thomas’ with 5 draws. In 1979 the match was not played due to a dispute regarding the date for the encounter.

This time Royal College seem to have a great chance of retaining the trophy after having thrashed Maliyadeva College Kurunegala 62 points to 6 in their opening match played at Royal grounds last week.

Royal will be captained this year by their experienced centre Thulaib Hassen while the experienced and one of the best young school coaches ex-Royal College rugby vice captain cum former Sri Lanka national rugby captain Dushanth Lewke will be the head coach. Former Peterite and Sri Lanka player Mohamad Sheriff will be the assistant coach with T.A. Silva, former Army and Sri Lanka national full back is the kicking coach.

The 2018 Royal side under the leadership of winger Shabith Feroz and head coach Dushanth Lewke, re wrote the Royal-Thomian rugby history where they demolished the Thomians 55-0 at Royal grounds, which to-date is the highest score by a team in this traditional encounter.