Narrow shave for Kandy Sports Club

RUGBY: Defending champions Kandy Sports Club went through several anxious moments before overcoming a gallant Havelocks Sports Club outfit by 13-11 in their Caltex 'A' Division League rugby match at Havelock Park on Sunday.

It was a marvellous display by the lads from Havelock Park. Their forwards gave a sterling display to dominate in the loose while the three quarters ran the ball at every opportunity and also brought down their opposite numbers with some rib-bruising tackling.

The Havelocks forwards especially Kasun Yasaisuru, Chathuranga Amerasinghe, Ravi Jayasuriya, Rajiv Perera, Dissanayake and T.D. Seneviratne played like terriers in the loose to outplay their counterparts. They also had a large share of possession from the line outs with Amerasinghe and Jayasuriya having the edge over the Kandy duo of Bandara and Bisthamin. The set scrums were shared between Havelocks Rajiv Perera and ex-Sri Lanka hooker Mohamed Buksh of Kandy SC.

The halves combination of Dilan de Zoysa and Sajith Bandara hit it off smoothly. De Zoysa who had an excellent game had the Kandy defence in disarray with his sudden breaks from the base of the scrum and also dished out some clean passes to fly half Sajith Bandara who set the three quarters in motion at every turn and also gave them territorial advantage with long kicks to touch. Centre Ruwan Suranga and winger Lalindra Rodrigo made some threatening runs before they were brought down by a desperate Kandy defence.

Kandy's scrum half Nilfer Ibrahim was slow in sending out his passes which resulted in fly half Fazil Marija and centres Sajith Mallikarachchi and Vithanage being at the receiving end of some bone-crunching tackles by their opposite numbers.

On the few occasions he got the ball winger Sanjeeva Jayasinghe made some power-packed runs before he was brought down in the nick of time by the Havelocks defenders. Full back Nalaka Weerakkody too had a good game with his safe collections and booming kicks to touch. However he missed a sitter of a penalty from 20 metres out midway in the second half before younger brother Eranda Weerakkody fired across a 35 metre match-winning penalty.

The park club had a chance of pulling off the match in the dying stages of the game when scrum half Dilan de Zoysa crossed the Kandy goal-line off a five metre scrum but the ball slipped out of his hands in the process of touching down much to the dismay of his team-mates.

CR - unimpressive win

The formidable CR and FC scored a lack-lustre 18-8 win over CH and FC on Saturday at Maitland crescent.

As expected the CR 'eight' maintained their supremacy in the loose with Viraj Prasantha, Walpola, Karthelis, de Saram, Swarnatilleke and skipper Pavithra Fernando giving a fiery display.

CH's Sumedha Malewana, Rajiv Ganapathy and Dilanka Wijesekera made a valiant effort but lacked support from the rest of the forwards. The Red Shirts also had a major share of possession from set scrums and line outs with Viraj Prasantha getting the better of his vis-a-vis Achala Perera in the set scrums and CR duo of Dharmathileke and Karthelis having the edge over CH's Malewana and Senerath in the line outs.

However CR's three quarters could not make much headway with fly half Asanga Rodrigo being slow in sending out his passes but strongly built centre Rajith Jayasundera made some daring runs before being brought down in the nick of time.

CH three quarters too failed to live upto expectations with fly half Prasad Perera resorting to kick ahead tactics which failed to pay dividends. To add to their woes full back Saliya Kumara fluffed two penalties within kicking range in the first half.

(R.S.)