Kandy juggernaut at full steam – smash the hapless Cops
Kandy SC made light of a potentially difficult assignment by smashing their way through to a 50 points (6 goals, 1 try, 1 penalty) to 13 (2 tries, 1 penalty) win over the Police at Police Park.Many felt that this could be a banana-skin for the champion club. But the dismissive manner in which they overcame the challenge indicated that they could raise the bar when it was needed.Collectively, this was their best game. The wayward passing of the first two games was not much in evidence. Instead, what one saw was a sleek-looking Kandy outfit functioning at full pelt.
Police made matters worse for themselves by some woeful tackling. Early on, Kandy obtained their first two tries near the left corner flag. The gap in the defence was well exploited, firstly by Sayuru Anthony and, a little later, by Nigel Ratwatte. Arshad Jamaldeen goaled the first and put over a penalty for the visitors to lead 15-3 at that stage.Funnily enough, as in the CH game, it was the losers who got on the board first when Reza Mubarak arrowed a 45 metre kick through the uprights. That was the limit of Police’s ambitions for the next thirty minutes or so.
Police’s Mohammed Sheriff, who alternated between the fly halfs and full backs berths, shone like a beacon in the wilderness. He fought his way through almost to the line, but his team-mates could not go that extra yard or two. Fisticuffs broke out at this moment and Sharo Fernando was sin binned. He was later given a red card and banished for good.Kandy got their next try through a Police lapse when they were on the attack. A dropped pass saw Ratwatte picking up and darting his way under the posts. Jamaldeen made it 22-3.
Sheriff once again initiated a threatening move, combining with Mohammed Abzal in a one-two. But crucially, the latter dropped the last pass.
Just before the break, Marija produced one of his specials to weave his way through the defence and end up under the posts. An accurate conversion meant that the winners took lemons at 29-3.A short tap early in the second half saw the ball being transferred to skipper Marija, who cut through the defence at speed in a forty yard effort.Vishvamitra Jayasinghe produced a gem of a try next. Ratwatte fielded a high ball and switched it to Jayasinghe on the right flank
The latter moved in and went straight through the Police defence without being touched. (43-3)The Police played power rugby in the last quarter and were rewarded with tries by Bilal Hassan and Sudam Suriyaarachchi. Neither of these was goaled. Police’s second try was the result of Sheriff’s brilliance.Kandy scored in the dying minutes through lock Sashika Jayawardena. This too was goaled by Arshad Jamaldeen who had a field day with his boot. Damith Dissanayake, Buwaneka Udangamuwa and Tilina Wijesinghe (all of Kandy SC) were sin-binned.Referee – Aruna Rankothge.
Havelocks down Navy Havelocks overcame Navy 16-3 in the rugby game played at Welisara. Havelocks gained their points through a goal and 3 penalties. Navy’s points consisted of a goal and two penalties.Army win over Air Force Army had the better of Air Force at 37-25 in their league first round rugby game at Diyagama after leading 20-12 at the breather. Army collected their points through 4 tries, 4 conversions and 3 penalties. Air Force’s points consisted of 3 tries, two conversions and 2 penalties.