Rowdyism mars end of play, as Kandy sink sailors in 25-20 thriller

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

The defending League Champions Kandy Sports Club kept their chances alive of retaining the League title when they pulled off a thrilling 25 points (2 goals, 1 try, 2 penalties) to 20 (1 goal, 2 tries, 1 penalty) win over Navy Sports Club in their Dialog League rugby tournament match played at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium before a capacity crowd yesterday. At half time Kandy SC led 14-13.

However a day of excellent rugby was marred by rowdy behaviour on the part of some spectators. Soon after the long blast when the Navy players were walking into their dressing room a section of the jubilant Kandy supporters jeered at the Navy team, with cat calls.

It is also alleged some bottles were thrown into the field which resulted in fighting breaking out. It was a sad day for rugby after a well contested team game.

Present at the match was President Mahinda Rajapaksa and First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa. Their three sons Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha were part of the Navy team.

The match turned out to be a bitterly fought battle with Kandy Sports Club dominating play in the early stages but sailors fought back to take over the lead mid way in the second half when there were signs of the match slipping out of Kandy’s hand.

But the home team in the last ten minutes of play carried out a severe onslaught on their opponents’ defence to torpedo the sailors in the final minute of play through a try scored by flanker Moses which brought them victory thus avenging their last week’s defeat.

Navy kicked off but the Kandy’s forwards displaying a lot of aggressiveness drove play into Navy’s territory.

A maul saw No 8 Sean Wijesinghe sending a short pass to flanker Shashika Jayawardena who went over far left. Scrum half Roshan Weeraratne added the extra points.

Kandy led 7-0. That was when the game was five minutes old.

In the tenth minute Kandy’s forwards once again charged for their three quarter to take over and Winger Mohamed Jabbar scored mid left for Roshan Weeraratne to add the extra points for Kandy to take up a commanding lead of 14-0 with the game being barely 10 minutes old.

But the sailors fought back with all determination and they first reduced the lead through a 35 Metre Penalty fired by fly half Dev Anand. Navy 3-14.

In the 35th minute a three quarter movement saw Navy’s Winger Niranjan Wickremaratne scoring by the left corner flags Dev Anand failed to add the extra points. Navy 8-14.

Just before the short break a lax in the Kandy’s defence saw Winger Niranjan Wickremaratne once again scoring far left. This try too went unconverted. Navy 13-14.

In the 5th minute of the second half Navy were penalised in the ruck and Roshan Weeraratne converted a 35 metre penalty. Kandy 17-13.

Navy fought back and exerted pressure on the Kandy defence and centre Dinusha Fernando sliced through to score under the post and full back Reza Mubarak added the extra points. Navy led 20-17.

A penalty fired in the 30th minute by Roshan Weeraratne saw the scores level at 20 all.

Play drifted into final 10 minutes and Kandy were seen in the offensive deep inside Navy territory forcing scrum after scrum till flanker Moses scored off a ruck.

Richard Kelly from London RFU refereed.