Marauding Sailors meet the fleet footed Kandy SC
With the Dialog Division ‘A’ club rugby season into its fourth week, quite a few teams have fallen by the wayside. The main challengers for supremacy – Kandy SC, the Havelocks and the Navy – as expected, remain unbeaten and in contention. This evening Nittawela will bear witness to the fall of another titan when Kandy hosts Navy.
Another service arm – the Army – tried conclusions with Kandy last Sunday and came off second best. It was a good contest from a rugby point of view. The home team was in control from the start but Army didn’t yield easily. They kept coming back. It was a good thing that Kandy scored twice in the opening ten minutes. The second half went Army’s way and they maintained the pressure on the dethroned champions.
Encounters between Kandy and Navy have been interesting during the recent seasons. - File pic
On another day, Kandy would have had to pay dearly for conceding too many penalties. But the Soldiers couldn’t capitalise on these.
Kandy is a fit, disciplined side who plays clean, hard rugby. There is hardly a weak link in the team. One of the primary differences between the side and some of the others is that Kandy’s local players don’t look up to the foreign players for salvation. By contrast, players in some other clubs tend to sit back and wait for the foreign players to deliver the goods.
Players such as Wilwara, Oshan and Lavanga Perera and Kalhara are playing almost as well as their non-Sri Lankan team mates. That said, it must be mentioned that in fly half Fili Satano they have a good thinker to orchestrate their performance.In the pack their number eight Andrew Porter is a committed player who does not shrink from the fight. He is right in there.
Led by 15-14 by the Upcountry Lions, the Navy came back well last Saturday to beat their hosts 24-15 at Nawalapitiya. However Navy was able to cross their opponent’s line on two occasions only. The Lions did the same, too. The question arises if the Navy is short of fire-power in the back division. Navy’s foreign players – centre Cakaunivallu Stefano and number eight Joketanu, both Fijians – certainly provide their money’s worth.Namal Rajapaksa, flanker cum number eight in his school days, has now settled down to his new slot as hooker. In addition to Sajith Saranga, Danushka Perera and Nuwan Hettiarachchi, who have been around for a while, the Navy possesses some outstanding talent in Jason Dissanaike, Richard Dharmapala and Bilal Hassen.
The Navy has beaten Kandy on a couple of occasions during the past two seasons. But this time around, playing in very familiar conditions, Kandy should prevail. The match will start at 4.00pm and tickets will be sold at the club on Sunday morning.