Close tussle expected in Kandy-Army semi-final

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports correspondent

A close tussle is expected when the defending Clifford Cup Champions kandy sc take on Sri Lanka Army in the semi-finals of the Caltex sponsored Clifford rugby tournament which will be played at the Nittawela grounds on Tuesday, August 30th commencing at 5 p.m.

The champions have beaten the Sri Lanka Army twice in the Caltex League tournament by not so comfortable margins. In the first game played at Nittawela, Kandy beat the soldiers 40 - 27 and in the return game played at the Army grounds they just managed to beat them again by the wafer-thin margin of 18 - 19.

In both these matches Kandy's forwards gave a pathetic display due to the absence of Pradeep Basnayake, Buddhi Thalagampola, Dilip Selvam, Sean Wijesinghe which left a gaping hole in their pack. But all these players will return for today's clash except Buddhi Talagampola and they will be further strengthened by the inclusion of that Sri Lanka and former CH & FC's crack No. 8 Dushantha Lewke who peg the soldiers.

In the quarter finals played last week Kandy SC trounced Sri Lanka Air Force 67 - 8 while Army just managed to beat Havelocks SC through a sudden death penalty during injury time. Sri Lanka Army have also not tasted victory at Nittawela for over 13 years now and taking also all these factors into consideration, a Kandy victory is on the cards.

The teams:

KANDY SC (from) Jeewa Galgamuwa, Anju Buksh, Saranath Hettiarachchi, Sumedha Jayasinghe, Pradeep Basnayake, Dushantha Lewke, Sean Wijesinghe, Imran Bisthamin (No. 8), Amjad Buksh, Fazil Marija, Chamara Withanage, Sajith Mallikarachchi, Pradeep Liyanage, Sanjeewa Jayasinghe (Captain), Nalaka Weerakoddy,

SRI LANKA ARMY (from) M.D.N. Kotawela, C. Mahesh, F.S. Meepage, H. Madurawela, N. Jayasuriya, N.D. Karunaratne, S. Madurasinghe, D. Suranga, P.C. Wijesinghe, W.A.C. Kumara, H. Lankatillake, K. Knowlton, N.U.A.A. Perera, S. Duminda, T.A. Silva.