Kandy outclass Air Force to take top spot

Thursday, 19 February 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Kandy Sports Club grounded Sri Lanka Air Force by 66-27 in a 10-try blitz at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium last weekend. With this win, the Inter-club League will go into its last three matches to decide the winner. This time, defending champions Navy SC, Havelocks SC and Kandy SC are all frontrunners but Kandy SC holds an advantage as they will play two of their home matches out of three at their home ground at Nittawela. Kandy SC played in their usual pattern of attacking rugby using the maximum out of their powerful three-quarter line. Their Tongan-born player Koto Pongi was outstanding. He was ably supported by evergreen fly half Fazil Marija who worked his three-quarters at every given time. With Roshan Weeraratne operating from the scrum and his defence was top class giving some fine cover tackles to keep away the Airmen from scoring freely. On the wing both Anuradha Wilwara and Lavanga Perera were threatening in their lightning pace moves while being rock solid in defence. The Airmen on their part played well in patches. They expected too many wonders to happen from their Fijian players who lacked support from the local players. The Airmen too found gaping holes in the Kandy defence no less than three times to crossover and convert the same. Havelocks Sports Club playing in their centenary year of the Park Club continued their winning streak and kept their hopes alive of winning the Iinter-club League when they defeated Army Sports Club by 31-23 with centre Dhanushka Ranjan scoring a hat-trick of tries. Havies scored three goals and two unconverted tries while Army’s 23 points came through one goal, two tries and two penalties. Havies too are hunting for the Cup along with the defending champions Navy Sports Club and Kandy Sports Club as the battle heats up in the last three weeks of the Club Rugby League. Navy continued their good work after their shock defeat at the hands of Havies when they ran over the Cops 29-13 not only to beat the Police but also to collect the much needed bonus point. The good news of for the Sailors was the return of their star player Srinath Sooriyabandara who returned to club rugby after a lapse of three months due to his knee injury. This will be very important for the Sailors in the coming encounters against CR&FC and Kandy SC. Unfortunately for them both the encounters will be away games for the Welisara outfit. Dropping a game means your chances of the league fading away. Kandy with two home matches against Army SC (22 February) and Navy SC (15 March) and one away encounter against Havies (7 March) looks a yard faster than their two opponents Navy SC and Havies. Club rugby will come to a brief stoppage for one week at the end of February when the national team travels to Malaysia to participate in the Borneo Rugby Sevens.