Kandy and Navy move forward towards league title

Thursday, 11 December 2014 01:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shamseer Jaleel Both former Inter club League champions Kandy Sports Club and the current league defending champions Navy Sports Club marched forward as the top two teams towards the end of the first round of the inter club league rugby tournament which concluded its sixth week of matches on Sunday.

Last week’s matches started with a close battle between the ‘Dark Horse’ of the tournament Army SC and Havelocks SC, who gained bonus point in all their six matches (including this game) so far. Havies made very clear that they will never take any sides lightly in the tournament, running with an outside chance of the League if they can make a good impression against the Sailors in two weeks’ time. Last Sunday the match of the weekend was witnessed at Nittawela Rugby Stadium where Kandy SC showed their intentions very clearly in front of their strong supporters which amounted to more than 3,000. After a slow start they dominated the second half scoring five more tries to end up on 46/19 win over the Cops. Kandy SC played minus Anurudha Wilvara who is nursing an injury. He was rested for their next encounter against CR&FC which will be the last home game in the first round for the up country club. Their overseas players, Oscar Ouma and Chris Colette, were both outstanding. Chris playing at his peak was injured but will recover on time for their next key encounter against CR&FC on 14 December at Nittawela. Kandy not only won its fourth game but also gained bonus point by scoring four or more tries.

For Police their Fiji sevens star Apisai Naqavita had a grand game though limited support from his team and the rest of the Cops were expecting too many things from him. He was heavily marked by Kenyan Oscar Ouma. Further Police SC played well in patches despite at times playing and kicking aimlessly. Another last weekend encounter saw Navy SC continuing their winning run when they beat the Air Force 40/22. After losing to Kandy SC, the Sailors are yet to hit the peak. After leading 26/12 they managed to beat the Airmen in the end but the performance was far from good expected from a team defending the league. Hambantota Sharks registered their first win for the season when they edged out CH & FC 38/32 in Colombo, after leading 19/13 at the short breather.