Three matches down for decision today

By Shamzeer Jaleel 

The Dialog Inter Club League 2017/2018 rugby season comes to its third and final week of matches today. There will be three games down for decision, all of which will be played in Colombo today and in addition to another game tomorrow.

The pick of this weekend game will be between the defending champions Kandy Sports Club and second placed Navy Sports Club at Welisara. Navy playing at home will be a tough outfit to beat, but with the Up Country side’s experience, they should be able to pull it off – though, only just. The sailors, led by Dhanushka Perera, Thilina Weerasinghe and Dulanjana Wijesinghe, are all in peak form along with their two new recruits from Police, Musheen Faleel and Mohamed Abzal. Given space, Kandy could run into trouble soon. Thilina Weerasinghe’s kicks at goal plus territory kicking will play a vital role to produce a miracle here and to put a full stop to Kandy SC’s unbeaten run. On the other hand, Kandy looks unstoppable with Fazil Marija, Nigel Ratwatte, Richard Dharmapala, Oshan Perera, Lavanga Perera, Gayan Weeraratne and Thilina Wijesinghe, all top class players. Kandy will miss out on Ranjan and Pathirana both out with injuries. This will allow Thilina Wijesinghe to come in as full back with Nigel likely to move to fly-half position. Anthony, Yakoob Ali and Tharindu Chanaka are to get the good ball for the speedy line to operate in lightning pace. On form Kandy should continue their winning streak. The Referees Society have decided to bring down Singapore referee Charlie Brown to officiate this encounter as well as the one on Sunday. 

Havelocks and CR&FC will battle it out in the traditional fixture with both teams not having a great season. CR being defeated in their last two games, with Havies drawing against the Cops which resulted in them coming in second to Navy. On form Havies hold slight edge over the Red Shirts. Police will take on Air Force, but there will be no changes in their position as the Air Force outfit has already gained enough points that the Cops cannot overtake them. 

The fourth game this weekend will see CH&FC and the Solders battling it out, with the Colombo 7 outfit clear favorites to win. Lee Keegale, Yoshitha Rajapakse and Lee brothers are all playing cohesive rugby. Their place kicker and full back Samuel Maduwantha will need to be on top of his game. He had an ordinary game missing out nearly 10 points which cost the game for the CH outfit.