Ranjan hat-trick floors CR

By Shamseer Jaleel

It was as close as expected but Kandy’s experience and poise earned them a sensational win over CR & FC in a club rugby league encounter which concluded at Longden Place over the weekend.

Sri Lanka Sevens skipper Dhanuska Ranjan was in cracking form, recording a hat-trick of tries. The experienced former Peterite was unstoppable and looked to be coming into great form for the upcountry club at the correct time with two important games against Havelocks and Navy coming up in the near future. 

Dhanuska Ranjan dummies his way past defenders with supoport coming from Rohan Weeraratne and Buwnaka Udangamuwa

His quick moves posed a constant threat and the red shirts never could stop him. He found gaping holes in the CR defence which was all over the place whenever he attacked. Ranjan crossed over for Kandy’s first try before prop Ganuka Dissanyake recorded the second. Ranjan went over for his second but CR cut the deficit through a Tharinda Ratwatte penalty and a solo try from scrum half Kavindu De Costa to leave the score at 19-8. Then came another sensational try from Sehan Pathirana to give Kandy a 24-8 lead heading into halftime. CR lost Tharinda Ratwatte in the second half due to a shoulder injury. This was costly for the Longden Place club as he is a key player for the side. After the turnaround, Ranjan dummied his way for his third try but CR hit back within the space of 15 minutes, scoring three tries. 

Hooker Warunakulasuriya and workhorse Ishan Noor (2) scored back-to back-tries. After the gap narrowed to seven points, Kandy scored through a nifty play from Kandy fullback Thilina Wijesinghe, who put over a neat drop goal to increase the lead to 10 points. 

Though Rehan Silva scored for CR, the try came too late in the game for CR to stage a comeback as Kandy not only ran out winners but also kept themselves in contention for the title along with Havies and Navy. Both teams scored a bonus point for scoring four or more tries. Havies and Navy continue to top the points table for yet another week due to these bonus point wins over Police and Air Force respectively last weekend. Kandy, the defending champions, sit behind them in third position, trailing by a single point. The game was refereed by Dinka Peiris.