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Kandy SC 58 points
Army SC 13 points
By Shamseer Jaleel
Kandy beats Army to remain unbeaten
Kandy continued their dominance in the inter-club league rugby tournament when they beat Army SC 58-13 in a one-sided encounter at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium last weekend.
Kandy ran away from their opponents through a nine-try blitz, with the soldiers only able to reply with one try. With this win Kandy lead the points table with 17 points followed by both CR&FC and Havelocks, who are each tied on 12.
Kandy’s three-quarter line looked threatening and was hungry for tries with both Ranjan and Wilwara each completing a hat-trick of tries. Army looked good with their forwards but their three-quarters let them down badly with some aimless kicking. This put them on the back foot.
Kandy skipper Gayan Weeraratne was in cracking form. Although he did not score he created gaping holes in the weaker Army defence. Dharmapala, Jason and Sooriyabandara scored the other tries for Kandy. The usually accurate national fullback and place kicker of Kandy SC, Thilina Wijesinghe, was not his usual self with his kicking. Army scored through their skipper Senanayake. Roshan Weeraratne, who missed out on three of Kandy’s games, will be expected to take the field after his injury in two weeks’ time.
Sri Lanka Air Force secured their first win of the season when they secured a hard-fought win over Police in Ratmalana. After leading 7-0 at halftime, the game was evenly poised but the Cops failed to add points which put the pressure back on them. Ramdas Rumesh, the Air Force fullback, scored two tries and was in peak form for the winners. The Cops will need to get their basics correct if they are to trouble other teams in the league. Air Force had gotten rid of their Head Coach Ronny Ibrahim a week earlier. The former Kingswoodian has since found employment at CH&FC as the club’s Rugby Director.
CH produced some top-class rugby while CR displayed lethargic rugby from their end to help the CH outfit secure their first win in the 31st encounter between the two teams. Lee Keegal, Samuel Maduwantha, Sathya Ranathunge and Yoshitha Rajapaksa stood out for the CH outfit, which sent out a strong warning to the other sides in the league.
Former Antonian Samuel Maduwantha was in peak kicking form for the winners. CH was very unlucky to be at the receiving end due of some poor refereeing in this game.
Havies put forward pathetic display
Havelocks 14 points
Navy 25 points
Havies, after securing two bonus point wins in their first two games against the Cops and Air Force, put forward a pathetic display of rugby to lose to Navy away in Welisara last weekend.
Navy fullback Thilina Weerasinghe was once again in good form, kicking penalties with very good accuracy plus his touch kicks gained a much-needed territorial advantage for the Sailors. He was well supported by hooker Dulanjana Wijesinghe while for the Park Club Kevin Dixon and Nishon Perera played well. With Havies’ defeat, Kandy will take the lead and are unlikely to concede it for at least another week when they play Air Force at home which should be another bonus point win for the upcountry outfit. Martis, who opted out of junior rugby coaching, will have his hands full after this performance of the Park Club before taking charge of the Peterite outfit later in the year.
