Cops fail to stretch marauding Kandy outfit
Kandy was never seriously challenged as they ran out comfortable winners by 61 points (8 goals, 1try) to 20 (1 goal, 1 penalty try, 2 penalties) over the Police at Nittawela yesterday.
The line outs were won almost in to-to by the winners, with Jason Dissanaike and Suhiru Anthony playing their parts well. Thus Kandy was gifted ample possession and they were not slow to make use of it. When it came to the scrums, the Police were pushed back by the sturdier Kandy pack. The rolling maul, when resorted to, worked to Kandy’s advantage.
Kandy was not at full strength. It didn’t seem to matter as the Kandy back division kept swinging the ball from player to player and continued to harass the Police defence.
A Sandesh Jayawickrema penalty gave Police the early lead. A nice sweeping move saw Nigel Ratwatte play a one-two with a team mate and then scorch along the touchline for Kandy’s first score. Thilina Wijesinghe made no mistake (7-3).
Hooker Uchita Jayasinghe scored next after the forwards had recourse to the rolling maul. Any slight weakness or laxity on the part of the Police was punished. On one such occasion, Anuruddha Wilwara, the unstoppable, crashed the rough and went over with the tackle (21-3).
Ratwatte initiated the next move and after a beautiful exchange of passes, Wilwara touched down for his second try. Wijesinghe’s conversion was followed by a Jayawickrema penalty to end the first half at 28-6.
Danushka Ranjan, who had been a bit inconspicuous, now took the limelight by doing the hard yards and skipping the ball to Ratwatte to go over for a converted try. Penalty had some relief when off a breakaway move a try seemed imminent. But collar tackle on the line resulted in a penalty try (40-13).
Dharmapala then did an exciting 50-yard to Srinath Sooriyabandara to put the finishing touches.
Not throwing in the towel that easily, the Police made a few moves. Off one of them, play was taking place five yards away from the goal line. Lock Udara Suriyapperuma rolled over and scored, Jayawickrema put it over for 47-20 score.
Kandy’s last two tries came courtesy of Richard Dharmapala (who wore the captains own-board for this game) and Danush Dayan who had just come off the bench. The guest of honour at this game was former Kandy and Sri Lanka winger Indrajith Bandaranaike, who is now domiciled in Australia.
Referee Ajith Kumara