Navy dethrone Kandy

The Welisara ground was jam packed and wore a carnival atmosphere. The DJ competed for air time with the rather loud papare band. The security was tight as expected given the VIPs on hand and the usual pat down was in force. The queue for tickets was long but I am sure that no one minded as they were there to witness the final clash of the Titans.

The movers and shakers in the Colombo rugby scene were all there in their glory, some in their Sunday best despite the heat and humidity.  There were a couple of young lasses seated right next to me and they were not very keen on the match. From what I gathered they were on FB, but who cares, they were all visibly present to witness Navy dethrone Kandy of their unbeaten status. Maybe they were busy uploading photographs to their pals so that they too could enjoy the moment. Navy hospitality was at its best with valet parking for the VVIP guests.

Navy was out with a purpose and as they had indicated after the HSC game, their main aim was to dethrone Kandy and they did in style. With a huge contingent of naval ratings as well as senior officers egging them on, they made sure that as and when they made it into the Kandy 22, they had points on the board for the effort be it a try or courtesy of a drop goal.  Navy was willing to spin the ball wide after about three or four phases of forwards play and this paid rich dividends. Their play maker fly half occasionally got past the gain line but their two centres are powerful runners and pretty decent tacklers in defence. On occasions they did not move up in a coordinated line to defend/or one of the expats would attempt something fancy and thereby left a gaping hole, which Kandy capitalised on.

It appeared that Kandy has come to view this game as a hoodoo game and their quality of play left much to be desired. I say this as I cannot imagine how they permitted the Navy #8, to trundle straight through the middle on two separate occasions as did a dash on the blind side go unchallenged.

At line out time Kandy for some strange reason decided to throw to the #6 jumper on a number of occasions and was lucky to get away with a number of not-so-straight throws. Navy on their part failed to counter this move by moving their taller men to the back of the line out on a Kandy throw in.

As I have said before, Navy should guard against unwarranted play and yesterday they paid the price for it by way of a yellow card in the first half and a red card in the second half. Kandy failed to capitalise on this in the second half, although they did so in the first half. I was surprised to see Navy play with eight men upfront with a man down, leaving the blind side wingers position open. The fact that Kandy failed to capitalise on this is deplorable. Despite the dominance by Navy, they failed to get a bonus point as did Kandy as the margin of defeat was greater that a single score.

Thus the win by Navy fulfilling those conditions, was perfect for HSC, who defeated the UCL with a bonus point and thus moved to the top slot at the end of round one.  Whilst it is three points that separate the top three teams, 14 points separate the fourth slot holders from the third, indicating that there is a vast gulf between the top three teams and the others.

CR piled on further misery on CH to record their third win. CH on their part need some soul searching and a huddle by the think tank to put things right is definitely overdue.

In the super rugby final, it proved to be an anti climax as the Chiefs ran out worthy winners over a rather bruised and lacklustre Sharks team. The fact that the Sharks had travelled over 20,000 kms in the plays offs could have had an impact on such a crucial game.

No excuses and taking away the credit of yet another fine performance by the Chiefs, and it proved to be an appropriate send off for Sonny Bill Williams, in his final game. There is a call from the pundits to stage the finals after a two-week gap, definitely food for thought.

(The writer can be reached via [email protected].)