Kandy roar in Airmen’s den
A powerful second half rally ensured defending Dialog League Rugby champions, Kandy Sports Club, a massive win by 55 points (six goals, two tries, one penalty) to 8 (one try, one penalty) against Air Force Sports Club, in their opening second round game played at Ratmalana yesterday. Though Kandy enjoyed a rampaging win by a margin of 47 points, the Airmen unleashed all armours in their camp during the first half. The surprise attack by the hosts only gave the defending champions a slender 12-3 lead at halftime.
But the hosts were well countered by the Kandy unit after the turnaround, who went on to earn a bonus points while displaying an electrifying style of play. They scored back-to-back tries just after the breather.
Lock Suhiru Anthony touched down first in the second half under-the-post to give flyhalf Tharinda Ratwatte an easy kick over the posts, as he completed the game with 15 points from his kicks for Kandy. Lock Jason Dissanayake wasted no time to touch down soon after, from a neat offload from Ratwatte near the left corner, to score Kandy’s second try of the second half.
Soon afterwards the script of the game took a contrast than the first half with Kandy doing the bulk of attacking and Air Force more or less desperately defending their territory. Mohamed Shabeer scored a peach of a try from an uncanny backhand pass from scrumhalf Srinath Sooriyabandara, who went on to score his second try of the game a few minutes later. Anthony added his second try later on as Kandy completed a tally of 55 points from eight tries.
Kandy opened scoring in the 15th minute through Lavanga Perera, followed by another from Kavindu Perera. Gayantha Iddamalgoda collected the first three points for Air Force with a 30-metre penalty in the 18th minute. The Airmen were successful in breaching the Kandy defence once, as Yohan Perera took the honour to brace their solitary try.