Farewell to a great performer

This weekend will see the final round of the Caltex games, with Navy vs CR at Welisara and Kandy playing host to Havies at Nittawela. In the plate games, Air force will host CH and Police will have their work cut out against Army at Police Park.  The first two games will be on Sunday whilst the latter games will be on Friday.

There will be no games on Saturday locally, but for all those rugby enthusiasts the England vs Wales game as well as the Springboks vs Wallabies will be on cable TV. The build up to the RWC is slowly but surely underway.  

Navy after their magnificent win against the Havies last week are on a high. They obviously need a repeat performance this weekend and given that they are just 4 points behind Kandy would give them that extra spark to beat CR this weekend.

Kandy will obviously want to end the season on a high. On the other hand for Navy SC to capture the league title they would need to beat CR with a bonus point. The availability of playmaker Dev Anand may prove crucial in the final analysis.

Whilst mathematically all three teams Kandy, Navy and Havies are in with a chance, in my opinion it will eventually boil down to Kandy and Navy. Kandy should have it easy against the Havies if one is to go by the performance of both sides over the past few games. Even the games that Havies won have not been very convincing and their overreliance on the two expatriates has been plain to see. It is interesting to note that of the teams that fielded expatriate players only Havies are in the top four this season.

Thus what will be in store for the Havies next season will be interesting as the opportunity to blood younger players would have been a sensible option. The debate on the need for expat players is wide open.

CH has had a poor season this year despite the inclusion of expat players and is currently in the bottom of the heap. A win against Air Force this weekend will restore some pride provided there is some of it left. A win for Air Force will see them consolidate their position and hold them in good stead in the future.  

I am reliably advised that Kandy/Havies game will be a farewell game for one of Sri Lanka’s great wing three quarters. Despite the passage of time he has kept going and in the current season has proved a thing or two against opposing sides with his lighting quick runs down the corridor or picking the ball up from Kandy’s own 22 weaving in and out, side stepping many an opponent and scoring under the posts much to the glee of the Kandy fans and the reluctant yet spontaneous applause of all the others.

Thus if you want to see Sanjeewa Jayasinghe play his final game for Kandy, Nittawela is the place to be. A trip to the hills this weekend will be quite an experience with the perahera being concluded on Saturday and the curtain coming down on an illustrious career by Sanjeewa to cap it all on a Sunday evening.  Sanjeewa – well played.