Sports

Sports

Kandy settle after lemons to drown Navy
Kandy 81 Navy 18
By Shamsheer Jaleel
The star studded Kandy Sports club cut loose in the second half to beat a gutty Navy outfit by 81(8 goals, 5 tries) to 18(1 goal, 1try, 2 penalties) yesterday at Welisara in a Caltex League first round match which was played under wet conditions.

Kandy SC drew first blood in the 10th minute when Sanjeeva Jayasinghe brushed aside a few Navy players to score far right. Soon Navy reduced the lead through a penalty (Kandy 5, Navy 3). A while later Kandy SC's skipper Radika Hettirachchi dashed through to score far left which was converted by Amjad Bufsh.(Kandy 12 Navy 3).

Navy skipper Sherifdeen who had a grand game ploughed his way for a try which was converted to bring down the lead by 12=10. But minutes later Kandy SC scrum half Amjad Bufsh dummied his way for two tries to take Kandy SC's lead to 24-10. at lemons.

Navy SC who played well as a team ran out of ideas and were guilty of kicking away good possession. At the same time the defending Champions too played well below their best, dropping many passes.

But as so often before the lads from Kandy settled, re-grouped and took command after the break as their three quarters ran through the Navy defence to score 9 superb tries.

They completely dominated the second half winning line outs and punching holes in the tired Navy defence and putting some crunching tackles kept the Navy all at sea.

Kandy SC's Radika Hettirachchi's heady moves through the Navy defence were a constant menace. But the end is that Navy were gallant losers playing without foreigners gave a good account of themselves.

For Kandy SC Radika (3), Amjad (2), Sanjeeva, Sajith, Liyanage, Sameera, Cooray, and Dhiu scored one try each. They also received a penalty try. Eight of them were converted between Buksh and Hettiarachchi. Referee- Shamrath Fernando.

Top