Friday, 30 January 2015 00:23
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By Shamseer Jaleel
Defending inter-club league champions, Navy will face one of their toughest opponents in the competition when they lock horns with Havelocks Sports Club on 1 February at Welisara.
At present Navy are on top but the points they earned against the Hambantota Sharks will be deducted as the southern team, along with CH&FC, pulled out of the inter-club league tournament. Sri Lanka Air Force will also lose the points earned against the Sharks last weekend.
Apart from their second round win against the Sharks, the Sailors also beat Army in a bonus point victory. Meanwhile Havelocks, who are third in the league at present, beat Police easily and edged out their traditional rivals CR&FC last week.
Havies have a balanced outfit with some outstanding players such as Mohamed Sheriff, Shehan Pathirane, Sudarshan Muthuthanthri, Dulaj Perera and Mithun Hapugoda and are out to give their best. For the Sailors prop forwards Sathya Ranathunge and Srinath Sooriyabandara will do their utmost to clinch their home encounter. This match will be controlled by Referee Aruna Rankothge.
Today Army will host a much-improved Air Force outfit at the Race Course Grounds. This should be a close tussle with Priyantha Gunaratne blowing the whistle.
The last game of the weekend will see a CR&FC outfit smarting from defeat at the hands of their traditional rivals Havies, host Kandy at Longdon Place on 31 January.
Kandy, under the dynamic leadership of Sean Wijesinghe, will be eying the league this time after a lapse of two years. They will be at full strength with the inclusion of yet another South African to their starting line-up.
Kandy will also get back Richard Dharmapala, after he faced allegations for using a banned drug. He was cleared by world rugby officials two days ago. Kandy, who will be at full strength, will go for a bonus point win with the rest of their games left to be played in Kandy other than the Havies encounter.
On the other hand CR&FC, led by Ashan Costa, had failed to live up to the standards expected from them this season.
Only Kanchana Ramanayake was impressive for the Red Shirts. They will give their best against Kandy, which will see good open rugby for the spectators. This encounter will be controlled by Pradeep Fernando.
