Kandy SC maintain their supremacy
Ranjeeva Seneviratne
Kandy Sports Club maintained their supremacy in Clifford Cup rugby
with a superb 10-6 win over CR and FC in the final played at Nittawela
on Saturday.
The lads from Kandy dominated the first half to take a 10-nil lead
and withstood a fierce challenge from the Red Shirts in the next 40
minutes to emerge victorious. The victory enabled them to retain the
Clifford Cup-club rugby's richest prize for the third successive year
and for a record 15th time since they first won it in 1992.
They began their campaign for the title with a runaway 102-3 win over
Havelocks in the quarter-finals and then overcame a gallant CH and FC
outfit by 25-19 in the semi-finals before getting the better of the Red
Shirts in the final.
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Kandy Sports Club clinched the Clifford Cup the symbol of rugby
supremacy by beating CR and FC by 10 points to 6 in the final.
The champion Kandy SC team is seen here with the trophy. Picture
by Kavindra Perera |
It was another marvellous season for Kandy Sports Club which bagged
the Rugby Triple for the third successive year. They were off to a
flying start winning bath 'Sevens' tournaments in March.
They launched their campaign for the Caltex 'A' Division League Title
with a convincing 36-5 win over Navy and then overcame the Army (30-9)
and Air Force (27-6).
They also beat the formidable CH and FC by 30-3 before scoring two
smashing victories over Police (67-16) and Havelocks (73-12) before
edging out arch rivals CR and FC by 21-17 in their last first round
match. They began the second round with a superb 31-10 win over CH and
FC before suffering a shock 11-12 defeat at the hands of Navy.
They made amends for it with two impressive wins over Air Force
(34-11) and Army (42-11) before overcoming arch rivals CR and FC 26-16
at Nittawela which helped them to retain the Caltex 'A' Division League
Title for a record ninth successive year.
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Kandy Sports Club’s Mohamed Sheriff makes a break evading
tackles from CR and FC’s Zulki Hamid and Ishan Noor with more
opposition coming his way from CR and FC’s Henry Terrance in the
Clifford Cup final played at Nittawela which Kandy SC won 10-6
to retain the trophy for the third successive year. Picture by
Kavindra Perera |
With their power-packed forwards and a superb set of three quarters
Kandy Sports Club were far superior to all the other teams. No. 8 Sajith
Saranga, flankers Dilip Selvam and Sean Wijesinghe, lock forwards Senaka
Bandara and Zaffer John and prop forward Kishore Jehan played like
terriers to outplay their counterparts in the loose in most of the
matches.
They also won an abundance of possession through the slick hooking of
Aravinda Udangawa and the excellent line out jumping of Senaka Bandara
and Jaffer Jahn.
The three quarters made maximum use of the 'good ball' which came
their way with the Sri Lanka halves combination of Saliya Kumara and
Fazil Marija hitting it off smoothly giving a marvellous display.
Centres Pradeep Liyanage (who scored a hat-trick of tries against CH in
the semi-final) and Gayan Weeraratne sliced through the opponents
defence time and again with their side-stepping and speed while winger
Sanjeewa Jayasinghe came up with a stupendous performance with his
powerful runs down the flank scoring over 25 tries for the season.
Full back Radhika Hettiarachchi was a tower of strength in the last
line of defence with his safe collections and booming kicks to touch and
the knack of joining the line to form the overlap. He missed the
Clifford Cup Tournament due to injury and was replaced by Mohamed
Sheriff. |
