As the countdown ends and the scoreboard resets, get ready to hear the crowds roar and the stands rumble as the 33rd edition of the most awaited water polo encounter between Royal College, Colombo and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia gets underway for the Dr. R. L. Hayman Trophy at the Sugathadasa Swimming Pool Complex. As per the usual format, the 33rd edition will unfold across two legs. The first leg will be played on the 26th of September, and the second a week later on the 3rd of October, with the winner decided on aggregate.
The Dr. R.L. Hayman Trophy encounter, better known as “The Hayman” has a setting like no other schools fixture in the country. You walk into two stands facing each other like old rivals squaring up, the army of Thomians rising on the left, the army of Royalists answering on the right. Between them lies the pool, but the real contest starts above it, chant meeting chant, one side reaching louder just to be heard over the other, voices thrown back and forth like the game itself. The rain always comes, as if the Hayman wouldn’t be the Hayman without it, yet no one leaves, the crowd standing soaked and unbothered, packed in tighter than before, this is the iconic Hayman Atmosphere.
S. Thomas’ College lead the tally with 17 wins to 11, winning their last game in 2022, led by Captain Dirhean Dias. Notably, the encounter has also been drawn on four occasions in 1999, 2001, 2017, and most recently in 2023. The boys from Reid Avenue have managed to maintain a firm grip on the Dr. R. L. Hayman Trophy for two consecutive years, first regaining possession in 2024 led by Captain Mihin Wanigasekara. They went on to win it yet again in 2025 with a record score aggregate, led by Captain Anuga Handunpathirena.
As Head Coach Yasodha Wasalage and Captain Bihandu Katugampala step onto the Sugathadasa pool deck, the two find themselves in strikingly familiar territory. Back in 2022, the pairing combined to break a seven-year title drought, clinching the Mahinda Liyanage Trophy with Wasalage as coach and Katugampala as captain of the U-15 side. Royal’s camp coaching staff has remained mostly unchanged since 2023, with Yasodha Wasalage, Chandula Fernando and Omira Lokuge at the helm. Royal’s roster carries considerable international depth, fielding eight National cap holders who have represented Sri Lanka at U-20 or open level. This experience could prove decisive players accustomed to the tempo and refereeing standards of international water polo often adapt faster under pressure than those encountering it for the first time.
A similar continuity holds true at Mount Lavinia, where Saviru Wijesinghe, following his successful seasons as U-15 coach in 2024 and 2025, will take up the position of Head Coach of the Thomian outfit. The Thomians are no less battle-hardened. Captain Shehran Nawaz leads a side featuring ten National cap holders capped for Sri Lanka at U-20 or open level, two more than their Royal counterparts. The Thomian outfit a force to reckon with, evening out the playing field will be eyeing that trophy, adamant on bringing it back to Mount Lavinia, but not without the Royal outfit equally adamant on keeping it locked in the cabinets at Reid Avenue.
For three decades this rivalry has raged on, evolving into the fast-paced, high-adrenaline spectacle it is today. Going into tomorrow’s game, let alone any game, one fact remains certain: on paper, one team may appear to hold the edge by sheer weight of achievement, but history has repeatedly shown that paper advantage dissolves quickly in this age-old rivalry. The result instead hinges on every variable painstakingly covered by both teams during the season’s training. As the heavens open up in Kotahena and the crowds begin to roar, as the scoreboard resets, the price of victory will have been paid, but as all encounters must end, only one shall prevail.
