Sailors enter final after 21 years:

Kandy SC-Navy clash in Clifford Cup final

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

The Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club made a sensational entry into the Clifford Cup final with a stunning 19-12 win over the star studded CR and FC and will confront the mighty Kandy Sports Club in the final on August 1 (Sunday) at Bogambara Stadium.

Kandy Sports Club staved off a fierce challenge by Air Force in the second half to win by 27-23 and a close tussle for supremacy can be expected in the final.

It was Navy’s forwards who paved the way for their victory over CR with a power-packed display. Skipper Sumedha Malewana was a source of inspiration to his team-mates with his fiery loose play ably supported by Piumal Manchanayake, Kalana Amarasinghe, Rohitha Rajapaksa, Hamza Hassen and the omnipresent Namal Rajapaksa and should give a repeat display on Sunday to outplay the Kandy ‘eight’ in the loose. The forte of Kandy SC have been their speedy three quarters.

The halves combination of Roshan Weeraratne and Fazil Marija have combined effectively with Marija having the opponents defence in disarray with his sudden breaks.

Centres Chamara Vithanage and Gayan Weeraratne are hard runners who are capable of breaching the sailors defence but the biggest threat to Navy will be posed by winger Sanjeeva Jayasinghe with his powerful runs down the flank with full back Saliya Kumara having the knack of joining the line to form the overlap.

Navy’s three quarters especially centres Susantha, Methruwan and Winger Hettiarachchi came up with resolute tackling to keep the CR ‘threes’ at bay and they will hope that they will give a repeat display with rib-bruising tackling to cripple Kandy’s three quarter moves.

Navy will be further strengthened by the return of flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa for the final at the expense of Mohamed Izzadeen while Kandy SC are likely to make two changes.

Sri Lanka centre Gayan Weeraratne is likely to replace schoolboy Anuruddha Wilwara in the back division while Aravinda Udangewa is likely to fill the No. 8 berth with Sajith Saranga likely to miss the game having received a Red Card in the semi-final against Air Force. It was in 1989 that Navy last entered a cup final. Led by Parakrama Samaraweera the sailors scored a smashing 16-4 win over Havelocks in the quarter-final.

In the semi-finals they met the mighty policemen led by Hafeel Marso and scores read 6-all even after extra time and Navy entered the final on the toss of a coin and went down fighting to the formidable CR and FC by 3.6 in the final.

It was former Royal, CH and FC and Sri Lanka third row forward Bryan Baptist who took great pains to mould them into a formidable outfit in 1989 with the assistance of the then rugby chairman of Navy Lt. Commander (now Vice Admiral) Thisara Samarasinghe, the present Navy Commander.

Kandy SC - Eranga Swarnatilleke, Anuranga Walpola, Kishore Jehan, Senake Bandara, Buddhika Thalgampola, Sean Wijesinghe, Kasun de Silva, Aravinda Udangawa, Roshan Weeraratne and Fazil Marija (Captain), Sanjeeva Jayasinghe, Chamara Vithanage, Gayan Weeraratne or Anuruddha Wilwara, Mohamed Sheriff, Saliya Kumara.

Navy - Piumal Manchanayake, Hamza Hassan, Suranga Swarnatilleke, Kalana Amarasinghe, Sumedha Malewana (Captain), Rohitha Rajapaksa, Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Suranga Pushpakumara and Dev Anand, Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Chula Susantha, Dilip Methruwan, Samantha Lakshan and Eranda Weerakkody.