Kandy continue unbeaten run in league

By Shamzeer Jaleel

Kandy survived the challenge of a gutsy CR&FC outfit to eke out a 15 (1 goal, 1 try, 1 penalty) to 12 points (1 goal, 1 try) win, in a second round inter-club rugby encounter, which was worked off at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium yesterday.

At halftime Kandy led 10-7.

CR dominated proceedings through a combined effort from their mobile forwards and swift three-quarter line. Both teams had their own share of injury worries. CR were without their skipper Ishan Noor while Kandy too were devoid of the services of captain Fazil Marija as well as Lavanga Perera and Heshan Kalhara. 

The Red Shirts’ wingers Shashan Perera and Kavindu Perera looked threatening with some powerful runs which left the Kandyan defence in shambles. CR flanker Tariq Salih was threatening with his powerful moves. His cover tackles were top-class and left the Kandyan three-quarters without any space to run. The visiting team though covered plenty of territory but they could not convert this into points due to basic ball handling errors while on attack.

Kandy, led by scrumhalf Roshan Weeraratne, fed its three-quarters at every given opportunity. Richard Dharmapala and Vishwamithra Jayasinghe both played their hearts out but were well marked in their movements. 

Nigel Ratwatte, playing in Marija’s position, put CR under immense pressure through some brilliantly calculated high kicks which he did very well to follow up on. Kandy number 8 Buwanka Udangamuwa played well in both attack and defence. His quick moves ensured that more than one defender was required to bring him down.   

Kandy drew first blood in the 15th minute of the game through a sweeping three-quarter move which ended with Nigel Ratwatte touching down at the left corner flag. He made a beautiful conversion to hand Kandy a 7-0 lead. Five minutes later when CR line was caught offside Nigel Ratwatte obliged with a good 30-meter penalty. 

CR too had a chance when they found themselves within kicking range five minutes later but fullback Prince Chamara was off-target. The next couple of minutes saw the Red Shirts attacking Kandy’s 22. At one point their winger Shashan Mohamed dummied his way past several defenders before falling short of the try line by five meters. 

CR’s forwards kept on attacking, eventually leading to their burly Number 8 Arun Kumara going over for a forwards try. Kanchana Ramanayake added the extra two points to take them into halftime with the score reading 10-7 in favour of the home team.

After the turnaround Kandy were not allowed to dominate. Instead CR were in Kandy’s 22 searching for the try line but were unsuccessful many times due to some basic ball handling errors. 

They knocked on a number of times while on attack. Kandy scored in the second half through hooker Damith Dissanayake to take a 15-7 lead but CR at last saw the try line in injury time through forward Kokila Samandaperuma. 

Kanchana Ramanayake however missed the conversion. It was a case of being so close yet so far for the CR outfit, with their losing streak at Nittawela continuing for yet another year. The game was refereed by Irshard Cader. The Match Commissioner was Kavinda Jayasena.