Kandy retain league title

• Top club savours success for 18th time, beat Havelocks 26-11

By Shamseer Jaleel

Kandy continued their top form in the club rugby league as they went past Havelocks 26 points (4 tries, 1 drop goal, 1 penalty) to 11 (1 try, 2 penalties) at Havelock Park last night. 

This is the 18th time that Kandy have won the league. They still have one more game to go against last-placed CH&FC.

At halftime Kandy led 8-6.

Kandy took time to settle, a usual trend for the upcountry outfit. Havies looked a yard faster in the initial half due to the play of their mobile forwards. Kandy always looked to use their swift three-quarter line which was particularly threatening. 

The park club suffered a major blow when Dulaj Perera was taken off early in the first half due to a knee injury, robbing them of their top point scorer. Both Richard Dharmapala and Dhanushka Ranjan looked threatening with their attacking moves. 

Muthuthanthri and Rahull De Silva were both outstanding in defence and attack for Havelocks, splitting the Kandy defence with ease. 

In the second half Kandy showed their experience and tenacity. Furthermore, they saved two of their best players, Sooriyabandara and Gayan Weeraratne, for the game’s last 10 minutes. 

Havelocks drew first blood in the fourth minute of the game when their winger Dulaj Perera was on target with a 40-meter penalty. Five minutes later Kandy got a golden opportunity through a penalty kick but their fullback Tharindu Wijesinghe cracked under pressure and misdirected his effort. 

However, Wijesinghe executed a neat drop goal a few minutes later from 25 meters out from the try line to equal the scores. 

Kandy, who opted to attack through their three-quarter line, got an excellent opportunity when they kicked the ball and successfully chased it over nearly 40 meters with their star winger Richard Dharmapala touching down for the score. Once again Wijesinghe’s kick was off the mark.  

Havelocks hit back through a Rahul De Silva penalty. Both teams received one yellow card each with Havelocks losing out on Hirantha Perera and Kandy missing out on the services of their skipper Roshan Weeraratne. 

After the turnaround, Wijesinghe missed a penalty for Kandy early in the second half. But nevertheless, Kandy hit back a few minutes later through Damith Dissanayake, who scored on the far left corner. 

Once more Wijesinghe messed up the conversion but Kandy now nursed a healthy 13-6 lead. Ranjan, who could not be kept silent, went dancing through Havelocks’ tired defence to touch down for his first try of the match. 

In response, Nishon Perera scored for Havies to cut the deficit to 18-11. Kandy missed out on another golden opportunity when their winger Vishwamithra Jayasinghe failed to touch down after losing his balance on the line. Wijesinghe was on target with a late penalty to push the score further ahead to 21-11.  Sooriyabandara scored with his first touch of the ball for Kandy, covering nearly 40 meters. Weeraratne missed the kick at goal but Kandy already were comfortably ahead 26-11. The game was refereed by Charlie Brown from Singapore. The assistant referees were Rohan Fernando and Aruna Shantha.