When Royal College and S. Thomas’ College meet in the 131st Battle of the Blues over the weekend, the sentiments are as same as it had been in the last edition as two contrasting teams battle it out at SSC from March 11 to 12.

Royal College captained by Bhanuka Rajapakse are a strong outfit although they have been beaten in consecutive matches by Trinitians and Cambrians as of late.

Analysts term that disappointment as an eye opener rather than a measure of their strengths before the most important encounter.

Their depth of batting was such this season that they could afford the luxury of going out without their two leading batsmen Rajapakse and Kithruwan Vithanage for many encounters and could still win matches.

The experience Rajapakse and Vithanage bring to the team as Sri Lanka Under-19 World Cup players further distance them from their arch-rivals.

Royal recorded some remarkable victories against Wesley, St. Joseph’s, St. Benedict’s and Maliyadeva before suffering two defeats this season. In their bowling department they have for the first time a bowler who had taken 100 wickets for Royal in a school season in Maneesha Tantrigoda. He had been the key bowler on a number of occasions when Royal won this season.

Their batting line-up stretches from Ramith Rambukwella, Rajapsksha, Vithanage, Chalaka Bogoda, Charutha Rajarathne to Imal Liyanage, who have piled up heaps of runs this season. Rambukwella is their leading scorer with more than 900 runs.

In contrast, the Thomians under the captaincy of Dinesh Walpita survived shakily this season relying more on their new recruit Nuwan Kavinda, who has crossed the 1000 runs mark for the season.

S. Thomas’ beat Joseph Vaz College in a tournament match and recorded a victory against Richmond this season. Even the close followers of S. Thomas’ hardly remember that they did so as they have struggled on many occasions before suffering a defeat at the hands of Trinity.

They have experienced players in Walpita, Chamod Pathirana, Sachin Peiris, Lalindra Peiris and Ashane Fernando who were a part of the great escape last year and could hope that they click on the most important match of the season.

They came under their new coach, Barney Reid from whom they could take inspiration for the annual encounter.

Reid’s opposite number Gamini Perera had been encouraging his players to go positive and attack this season. Some analysts say that it could have been the reason for their recent back to back defeats and a point that the Thominas could exploit to their advantage.

The sentiment in the Thomian camp is that the ‘Thomian grit’ would prevail once again in the annual battle although they go out as the under dogs.