Team-work key to Kandy SC’s success

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy Sports Correspondent

The ‘Kings of Rugby Kandy Sports Club’ gave another top display during the 2009 Caltex League Rugby Championship to lift the title for a record ninth successive year when they beat Sri Lanka Army by the impressive margin of 42-11 at Longden Place last Saturday.

Team work consistency and intelligent play has been the hallmark of Kandy Sports Club’s success this season. Their only blemish this season has been in their match against Sri Lanka Navy when they were beaten by the wafer thin margin of 11-12, in a match which could have gone either way. It was a game in which Kandy missed a lot of scoring opportunities due to some indecisive play and mistakes at crucial stages of the game.

It has been a great performance by an outstation team which has snatched the League Title year in and year after, so much so, giving the Colombo Clubs no chance whatsoever.

If you take a look at the record of Kandy Sports Club, though the club claims of a 135 year old history in sports, they had not won a major rugby title till 1991, though figuring in three cup finals but finished second best.

This was a club which was founded by the planters residing in tea plantations in the district but they did not produce a team to win trophies at a time the scene was dominated by CR & FC, CH & FC, Havelocks SC, Dimbula SC and Dickoya Maskeliya CC with the last two named planter clubs filling their side with the expatriate planters from the plantations.

Kandy Sports Club performed so badly in the 1991 rugby season they faced the prospect of being demoted to the lower division which would have no doubt sounded the death knell for club rugby in the hill capital.

Fortunately they managed to defeat Petersons SC in the relegation match. This began the success march of Kandy Sports Club which created a sort of a ‘Kandy Revolution’ at rugby.

The year 1992, saw the return of some top ruggerites of the calibre of legendary Sri Lanka captain Priyantha Ekanayake, Lakshman Ekanayake, Imthie Marikkar, Leroy Fonseka, Lasantha Wijesuriya and others like Rizvy Suhaib, Shyam Siddique, Sudath Sampath and the team was further fortified with Fijians Kiti Ratrudradra, Beti Penaia, Vallimoney Satala and New Zealander Tony Greanney.

This star studded side did fairly well during the league season but not good enough to win the championship. But one match they would never like to forget was their rival match against CR and FC which they won by the handsome margin of 53-9 much to the jubilation of the supporters who came in their numbers.

An unforgettable incident in this match was for the first time in the history of rugby in the hill capital, a player carried physically another player and helped him to score a try.

It happened this way. Kandy’s flanker Kapila Samarakoon confronted by a host of players from the opponents team was struggling to penetrate the defence. Kandy’s strongly built centre Bati Penaia took the next step of rubbing salt into the wounds of the Red Shirts when he physically carried Kapila Samarakoon the final distance to make his touch down much to the amazement of the rugby fans.

That year (1992) Kandy under the captaincy of Ananda Kasthuriarachchi and Maurice Jorchim won the Clifford Cup which was their first major title in their history.

There was no looking back since then and in 1994 under the captaincy of winger Indrajith Bandaranayake they won the League title for the first time. In the year 1995 under the captaincy of Priyantha Ekanayake they won the League Title and the Clifford Cup. Though their dominance in the rugby arena was as late as 1992, they have won the Clifford Cup the most number of times and the longest run of championship wins in the League Championship.

They have been triple champions in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Their mega performance in the rugby field created a new dimension in rugby in the hill capital with more schools taking to the game and Kandy Sports Club without any doubt has the largest following of spectators and a Rugby Fans Association.

A packed house is on cards for any match played at Nittawela, if not any part of the island. Kandy has no doubt done outstation rugby proud.