Clifford Cup tourney has lost its glamour

S. Sivendran

RUGBY: The prestigious Clifford Cup Rugby Tournament which was the most looked forward to tournament in the country's rugby calendar and the most popular one during the history of local rugby has today lost all the glamour and importance going by the poor entries received from clubs this season.

During the days gone by the dream of all aspiring rugby players was to play in the Clifford Cup tournament and in order to achieve this ambition you had to play for the top teams such as CR and FC, CH and FC, Havelocks, Kandy SC, Dimbulla, Dickoya Uva and Kelani Valley which were the constituent clubs of the rugby union.

Police, Army, Air Force, Navy and University were the affiliated clubs not permitted to play in the Clifford Cup tournament till the early sixties and they had to toil hard for several years to play alongside the big clubs.

Previously these clubs played in the affiliated clubs tournament where the matches were played on Wednesday and the weekends were only for the Clifford Cup matches which were followed by club socials with dinner, dance and music, graced by the rugby fraternity this too is a thing of the past.

The players who played in the Clifford Cup became legends those days and spoken of even today such as Archibald Perera, Summa Navaratnam, Percy Perera, Mahesh Rodrigo, Ashey Cader, Malcolm Wright, Kavan Rambukwella, Ago Paiva, H. Numan, Geoff Weinman, Sari de Silva, Mohan Sahayam, Rudra Rajasingham, Malik Samarwickrema from CR and FC.

The Aldons brothers, Alan Drieberg, the Ephraims brothers, Dr. Hubert Aloysius, Nimal Maralande, Maurice de Silva, Dickie Jayatilake, Gamini Fernando, Ken de Joodt, and Glen Van Langenberg from the Havelocks.

John Banks, Y.C. Chang, Lorenz Pereira, Brian Baptist, John Burrows, Mike Birch, Keith Anderson, John Le Geyt, Peter Sawdy, Neville Leefe and Mike Prendawille of CH and FC. Ralph Gauder, Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Maurice Perera and the Makuloluwa brothers from Kandy, Chris Bean, John Bousfield, David Bretherton, Duncan Scobie, Larry Schockman, Lionel Almeida from the up country clubs to name a few.

Even the Police, Army, Navy, Air Force and the University had some outstanding players who became household names in rugby when they too were permitted to play in the Clifford Cup.

Unfortunately, today, the breed of rugby players fade away after a few seasons and are a forgotten lot except from a handful such as Priyantha Ekanayake, the present President of the Rugby Union.

Kandy SC and Police SC withdraw

For the first time in the history of Clifford Cup we saw clubs such as the Kandy SC and Police SC pulling out of the tournament which shocked the local rugby world as they were dominating the Clifford Cup for several years and they contributed immensely to national rugby.

They may have their own reasons for their withdrawal but rugby in general and the Clifford Cup tournament in particular were the losers.

It was also shocking to see Kurunegala RFC being accommodated to play in the quarter-finals of the Clifford Cup Tournament against Air Force whereas Kurunegala did not play in the league tournament as Dim-Dicks which won the Bowl championship of the league tournament and Jawatte Lions who played in the league tournament had not been considered for the Clifford Cup tournament.

Going by the happenings it appears that the Clifford Cup is losing its lustre and importance even the crowds at the quarter-finals were in the hundreds unlike the thousands who throng to see and enjoy the Clifford Cup tournament in the years gone by.

Galle RFC no match for CR and FC

The runners-up of the Caltex League Rugby Tournament and the favourites for the Clifford Cup this year in the absence of Kandy SC, the CR and FC had no difficulty in getting the better of Galle RFC who are playing for the first time in the Clifford Cup Tournament.

The Red Shirts routed the Galle side by 54 points to 5 points, having led 34-5 at the breather.

This game between the 'giants' of local rugby and the 'babes' was a mismatch in the quarter-finals of the Clifford Cup tournament.

On the same day the Air Force got the better of Kurunegala RFC at Ratmalana in the other quarter-final and will take on CR and FC in the first semi-finals on Saturday the 5th of August at Longden Place. CR and FC should win this encounter easily and enter the finals.

Havelocks outplay Army

The quarter finals between Havelocks and Army at Havelock Park which everyone thought would be the only evenly contested game in the Clifford Cup quarter-finals turned out to be a tame affair and the Havelocks beat the soldiers by a convincing 34 points (3 goals, 2 tries and 1 penalty) to 13 points (1 goal and 2 penalties).

The young Havelocks team played well as a team as against the Army team who displayed poor rugby skills.

The Havelocks back division was a treat to watch in motion whenever they ran the ball.

But when they kept the ball with their forwards they looked vulnerable as the Army forwards were stronger and won back the ball. The Havelocks with their speedy players must run the ball rather than getting mixed up with the forwards.

The Havelocks scored first with an orthodox threequarter move with their full back Dilip Methruwan joining and going over the goal line. Sajith Bandara converted. Havelocks again scored with their threes for winger Lalindra Rodrigo to touch down. Sajith Bandara again obliged with the conversion to lead 14-nil.

Minutes before half-time Army's full back T. A. Silva fired a penalty for the score to be 14-3 in favour of Havies at lemons. During the second half Havelocks scored another try by flanker Ravi Jayasooriya and goalled bySajith Bandara to lead 21-3. T. A. Silva the Army full back converted another penalty.

Havelocks again scored an unconverted try by Philip Esingarachchi who ran through the entire Army defence and scored to make it 26-6.

Havelocks scored again through their winger Lalindra Rodrigo off a three quarter move which went unconverted, to lead 13-6.

Army then crossed the Havelocks line when their winger Upali Wickremasinghe intercepted a pass from the Havelocks three quarters to score against the run of play. T. A. Silva converted. During the dying stages of the game, Havelocks put over a penalty for the match to end 34-13 in favour of Havies.

CH and FC beat Old Zahirians

CH and FC won their quarter-finals of the Clifford Cup tournament against Old Zahirians on Sunday at the Maitland Crescent by 41 points (4 goals, two tries and one penalty) to 15 points (1 goal, 1 try and 1 penalty). CH skipper, Niranjan Jayasekara 2 tries, Tuan Bohran, Indika Kumara, T. Saldin and Sumedha Malawana scored a try each, of which four were converted and a penalty was put over.

For the losers T. Cuncheer and Mohamed Saihib scored two tries. Cuncheer converted a try and put over a penalty.

CH and FC will play Havelocks in the second semi-finals on Sunday the 6th at Longden Place and this game should be well contested as Havelocks will go all out to avenge their earlier defeats in the 'A' division league.