Kandy gun down spirited Army
Army SC made a resounding resurgence from last week’s dismal loss, but were eventually outplayed by the titles holders Kandy SC 33-14 in a second week game of the SLR Nippon Paint Club Rugby League played at Panagoda yesterday.
The style they had adopted following a 8-55 thrashing at the hands of CR&FC last weekend at the same venue was impressive as the Soldiers surprised Kandy SC during the first half, which ended with a 14-all deadlock. They responded well following an early try from Kandy SC to score two converted tries and lead the game for over 20 minutes, which is surely an overwhelming achievement.
Kandy SC too were seemed totally surprised by the sudden revival of the Soldiers during most parts of the first half, but as clinical they are known to, gradually took charge of the game to end with a tally of five tries and four conversions. Kandy SC scored in the fifth minute itself, when their forwards formed a rolling maul allowing K.S. Pathum to brace a try in the far left, and with flyhalf Tarinda Ratwatte’s successful conversion they gained an early 7-0 lead.
But it was after this they had to face the unexpected. The Soldiers paced up their power and kept on attacking the Kandy defence, who seemed to have run out of options. Adding to their woes, Army found a way to breach the defence when skipper and centre Ashan Bandara scored a try in the 14th minute. With flyhalf Dilshan Hettiarachchi’s conversion Army leveled scores 7-all.
Hettiarachchi would go on to further irritate the opposition when he found passage to brace a try five minutes later as Army led 14-7, following the conversion made by the try scorer himself. They had the opportunity to expand the lead further, but couple of attempts went futile due to their own mishaps.
With the errors, Kandy found themselves back on the saddle and kept the Soldiers at bay concealing them moving freely. On the brink of halftime flyhalf Lakshitha Ranaweera stunned the Soldiers by running over for a try, and with Ratwatte’s conversion they levelled the scores 14-all at halftime.
Kandy followed the similar tactic after the resumption, while making changes to their starting lineup to gradually gain dominance. Eventually they succeeded when lock Wewala Panditha braced a try in the 50th minute, to give Ratwatte an easy conversion as Kandy regained the lead 21-14. Substitute prop Dilshan Fareed, who eventually turned out to be the star of the game, put matters beyond doubt when he completed a forward move to add another converted try to Kandy’s tally. He followed it up in similar fashion to score an unconverted try, as Kandy sealed the game 33-14 confining the Soldiers to the two tries they scored in the first half.