Fire and brimstone it will be when...:

Kandy meet CR & FC in Clifford Cup final today

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr.

It is going to be fire and brimstone when the defending Caltex Clifford Cup champions Kandy Sports Club take on the challengers and arch rivals CR and FC in the final of the Caltex Clifford Cup knock out rugby tournament match to be played at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium in Kandy today at 4.30 p.m.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Director of Caltex Lubricants Limited Kishu Gomez will be the Chief Guest.

Playing on their home terrain Kandy Sports Club will go out favourites to win this title for the third year in a row which will enable them to complete the triple crown. They have already won the inter club sevens organised by the SLRFU and held in February this year. Next they wrapped the Caltex League title with each having a eight point lead over their nearest team in the table of points. Thus Kandy will go all out to make a rugby triple.

A peep into the recent past indicates that Kandy first won the Clifford Cup title in 1992, after being in the losing camp for many years. They kept winning from 1994 upto 1997. Then resumed their winning trail from 1999 upto 2005. They pulled out of the tournament in 2006 to lodge their protest against a decision taken by the SLRFU to play all the matches in Colombo which they felt was against the existing arrangement of playing the matches in which Kandy is involved at Nittawela.

In the year 2007 the Clifford Cup returned to Nittawela thanks to the action taken by DIG Nimal Lewke in his capacity as President, SLRFU.

Kandy Sports Club and CR and FC have won the Clifford Cup 14 times each and it will be interesting to see who take the lead in the series this trophy was first offered in 1950. The pre 1992 era has been dominated by CR and FC, Havelocks, Sri Lanka Police, Sri Lanka Air Force. During this period Kandy has figured in three finals but always ended up as the second best.

It was in 1992 they first won and have completely dominated the series during this era. Their only year of blemish was in 1993 and 1998 when they could win the trophy. In 2006 of course they did not participate. That year they beat Havelocks SC 37-5. That was also the last time they won this trophy helped to a great participation of Kandy Sports Club.

Kandy Sports Club led by national captain Pradeep Liyanage are without any doubt a champion outfit having carried everything before them this season. They have displayed their superiority over the red shirts by vanquishing them twice this season both in Colombo and Kandy. They have also beaten them twice in the shorter version of the game. But they cannot take them lightly as the red shirts could always spring a surprise with their power play which they are famous for.

Kandy beat Havelocks 102-3 in the quarter finals and then scraped through to a 25-19 win over CH and FC last week, two penalties providing the win for them. In this game Kandy Sports Club after taking a commanding 19-0 lead at the breather thought of resting on their laurels while the CH and FC side increased their momentum of play through their forwards and this brought a big transformation of the game and Kandy suddenly found themselves on the brink of defeat and they had to revert their halves combination by pulling Saliya Kumara from the full back’s berth and installing him as scrum half while Mohamed Sheriff moved down to man the last line of defence to stop the CH and FC from scoring any more tries after they had scored three after the turnaround. Overall there was not much wisdom in playing link man Saliya Kumara as full back which denied fly half Fasil Marija his share of the good ball to work the dreaded three quarters of Kandy.

CR and FC led by that strong man Ashen Karthelis are a side to watch as they could spring a surprise on Kandy if the champions tend to relax which they cannot afford to do against a side like the red shirts. CR and FC beat Police 44-22 in the quarter finals. But in the semi finals against Sri Lanka Air Force after some early hiccups when they trailed behind 0-3 in the first half regained their fluency to register a smashing 22-3 win.Kandy-CR and FC clash has always evoked a lot of interest after eight players from the red shirt camp walked out and joined in Kandy Sports Club in 1992, to bring about a change in fortunes for the hill capital club which at that time was struggling for its survival at top level rugby.

Therefore, this game is not going to be different. Thus there is going to be red hot rugby for the rugby fans who may throng in their numbers for this match.