Kandy to face stern test against Army

By Shamseer Jaleel

Kandy, after suffering an unexpected defeat to Air Force, will be under pressure to perform well against Army at the racecourse rugby grounds when the club rugby league moves into its third week.

Army played their hearts out in both their encounters against CR&FC and CH&FC. In their first outing, although they played better rugby than CR, they ended up losing by a mere point. Against CH&FC it was one-way traffic, with the swift soldiers recording an easy win. 

Playing cohesive and open rugby for the entire 80 minutes will allow Army to give the upcountry outfit plenty of worries.

Army will depend heavily on their skipper and Number 8 Manoj Silva, fullback Gayan Salinda and hooker Jayalal. 

Kandy will rely on their quick three quarters to exploit holes in the defence. Dhanushka Ranjan, Fazil Marija, Arshard Jamaldeen, Srinarth Sooriyabandara and Richard Dharmapala will need to hit top gear for Kandy to come out on top before moving for their home games in the coming weeks. Their Head Coach Sean Wijesinghe’s tactics will be closely monitored in this game.

On the same day at Police Park, in-form Air Force will come out with confidence to overcome the underperforming cops at Police Park. Police lost their games to Havelocks and Navy while Air Force had a tough opener against Havelocks but achieved the impossible last weekend by toppling defending triple champions Kandy. 

The Airmen will depend heavily on Charith Seneviratne’s kicking prowess. The cops will be expecting Sansoni and Musheen Faleel to be at the top of their game to find defensive gaps and shepherd the three quarters towards the try line. 

On the following day, the traditional encounter between CR&FC and Havelocks will be played at Havelock Park. This encounter, which will be played under lights, will go down in history as the first club encounter to have the Television Match Official facility. 

Havelocks have some top class players in their ranks, including Dulaj Perera, Sudharshan Muthuthanthri, Mithun Hapugoda, Hirantha Perera and Sharo Fernando, and will be favoured to get the better of their traditional rivals. 

While CR&FC were very lucky to win against the Soldiers, they were beaten by the Sailors during the following week. They too possess some young blood such as Tharinda Ratwatte, Shashan Mohamed and skipper Sammandeperuma.   

The fourth game will see the in-form Sailors, with two wins from two games, hosting CH&FC. The Sailors should have an easy outing and pile up the points.