CR hold the edge over the Sailors

By Shamseer Jaleel

The inter-club rugby encounters will move towards its second batch of games in round two this weekend. The pick of this weekend’s games will be the one at Welisara between revamped CR&FC and the wounded Sailors with two back-to-back losses in their last two outings.

Kandy will once again travel down to Colombo, this time to lock horns with the Air Force outfit at Ratmalana tomorrow (23 January). Kandy, the unbeaten defending champions, is the only outstation team to participate in the league, needing to travel down to Colombo on no less than six occasions with the rest of the seven teams travelling up to Kandy only once in the season. Kandy SC, under Fazil Marija, looks a formidable side and very unlikely to be troubled by the Airmen. They have the best three quarter line with players such as Dhanushka Dyan, Lavanga Perera, Vishwamithra Jayasinghe, Gayan Weeraratne, Richard Dharmapala, along with skipper Fazil Marija who could walk into any team. Their fullback Nigel Ratwatte is at his peak, scoring tries and converting all difficult angles without much difficulty. Even players in the calibre of Arshard Jamaldeen and Srinarth Sooriyabandara are finding it tough to get into the starting line-up. Kandy is expected to give much-needed exposure to their bench in this outing as well. This encounter will be controlled by referee Aruna Rankothge.

The “Red Shirts”, after their win against Army, are booming up with confidence to meet any team in the second round. Shashan Mohamed, Ishan Noor, Ashan De Costa, Locahana Hettiarachchi, Kanchana Ramanayake and Prince Chamara have all been at their peak. The Sailors have been beaten in the last two games, once by Kandy and the other occasion by the Cops last weekend. They will need to fire on all cylinders to come up with a better performance in order to down the visitors. They too posses top class players such as Sathya Ranathunge, Omalka Gunaratne, Lee Keegale and Yoshitha Rajapaksa, who could put a stop to the free-moving three quarter line of CR. This closely fought encounter, which will be played tomorrow, will be controlled by highly-respected referee Dinka Pieris.

The third and fourth encounters for the weekend will be played on 24 January. Police will meet the lowly placed CH&FC at Police Park. Police are a blend of youth and experience, with players such as Mohamed Sheriff, Billal Hassen, Reza Mubarak and Sharo Fernando piling up huge scores. This game will come under referee Rohan Fernando’s watchful eyes.

The last game will be between the Park Club and the Soldiers, with the Havies hosting. This should be a close encounter with the Havies holding the edge. All will depend on whether their playmakers Dhanushka Ranjan, Shenal Dias and Dulaj Perera are fit to play. If not, it will be heavy shoulders for Sudharshan Muthuthanthri and skipper Sandun Herath. Irshard Cader will officiate this game.