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No mercy for Air Force
Kandy 48, Air Force 3
By Shamseer Jaleel
The battering Kandy machine generally is not famous for mercy where the game of rugby is concerned. Last evening the visitors from the hill country came down like a hailstorm to ground the limping Airmen by 48 points ( 1 penalty goal, 3 goals, 4 tries) to 3 ( a penalty) in their premier league encounter at Ratmalana,

Last week after a layoff the Kandy players took time to get their act together against the Old Zahirians. But, yesterday they quite close to their peak dominating play in every aspect of the game.

It took them only ten minutes to start piling on. In the tenth minute of the game referee S.W. Chang who was making a welcome back to the whistle could not bare the Airmen collapsing the scrum on their goal line awarded a penalty try to the visitors for which full back Nalaka Weerakkody added the extra points. Twelve minutes later it was the turn of the Kandy winger Shameera Silva to pass the Air Force defence when he dashed to plant a try mid-left. The extra points were added by Weerakkody. Then four minutes later the Kandy fly half Fazal Marija dummied his way through fall right under the posts. It was child's play for Weerakkody to add the extras to this try and by the 30th minute of the game Kandy led at 21 points to nil.

Air Force got their chance in the 32nd minute of the game when the referee awarded them a penalty to and fly half Sajith Bandara brought down the tally to 3-21. The Air Force joy was short lived. Four minutes after their penalty the Kandy fly half Marija dummied way through the bemused Air Force defence again. At 'lemons' Kandy led at 26-3.

Twelve minutes into the second half Kandy started their piling on again-- this time through a forwards rush in which No 8 Kapila Silva fell over. Weerakkody obliged. Then it was the turn of the Kandy skipper Sanjeewa Jayasinghe join the act. He fell over for his try in the 36th minute near the right corner flag to put them ahead at 38-3.

Thereafter Kandy scored on two more occasions through hooker Malith Hettiarachchi and second rower Buddika Talagampola to take their final tally to 48-3.

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