Kandy thrash Havies; await Red Shirts arrival

Kavindu Perera of CR is held by a Havies player 

By Shamseer Jaleel

Kandy Sports Club continued their unbeaten run in the Nippon Inter Club League 2022/2023 Rugby Tournament when they beat Havelock Sports Club by 29 points (4 tries, 3 conversions, 1 penalty) to 8 points (1 try, 1 conversion) at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium yesterday.

Kandy led at the short breather with 19/3.

Kandy played well with their young blood and mobile forwards. Led by Damith Dissanayake, Tharindu Chathuranga and Wajid Fahmy played their hearts out for Kandy. Although many expected the three quarters to have a run around the Park Club defence, it was not so. The Up Country’s young and mobile set of forwards dominated the game. 

For the Defending champions, Srinarth Sooriyabandara, Tharinda Ratwatte and Dinal Ekanayake’s experience came in handy but Kavindu Perera hardly got the ball to show his pace in this outing.

Havies made a number of handling errors in the initial half but made some bold moves in the later half. Their fly half, Sandesh Jayawickrema and Ramesh Fernando stood out for the Park Club. 

Even with the return of experienced Mithun Hapugoda in the later half, Havies could not make any difference. Havies hardly came into the second half as they defended most of the initial half. They seemed to have lost all steam in their engine with their three earlier defeats once to Kandy and twice to their traditional rivals, CR. 

Thilina Bandara, Wajid Fahmy, Tharindu Chathuranga and Dinal Ekanayake scored tries for Kandy with Tharinda Ratwatte converting three of them and putting over a solitary penalty for the home team. Meanwhile Sandesh Jayawickrema put over the only penalty for Havies with Ramesh Fernando breaking through the Kandy defence to touch down once.

Referee was Hasantha Weranga and Assistant Referees were Priyantha Gunaratne and Kelum Sandaruwan. 

Kandy SC has collected 51 points from their nine games while CR is totalling 45 in their nine outings. Kandy SC will host CR and FC in their last encounter at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium on 19 February. It seems Kandy will safely keep the League title for a record eight-in-a-row at Nittawela as the calculations do not favour CR.