By Shamzeer Jaleel
Kandy Sports Club sealed a highly successful rugby season when they outplayed Havelock Sports Club by 32 points (4 tries, 3 conversions, 1 penalty and a drop goal) to 20 (3 tries, 1 conversion and a penalty) in the Clifford Cup final at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium at Sunday.
At the breather the winners led 24-03.
The game was played under wet conditions as a result of a heavy down pour 30 minutes before the kick off.
Ball handling was tough and it was the Park Club who played well attacking deep in Kandy territory in the early stages of the game. Loss of Dulaj Perera due to an injury was a crippling blow for the Havies and they failed to gain the much needed territorial advantage – a job usually obliged to by Dulaj. However,
Sudharshan Muthuthanthri, Hirantha Perera, Nishon Perera and Sudam Sooriyarachchi were outstanding both in defence as well as in attack. Though much was expected from Kevin Dixon he under performed.
Kandy took time to settle in the initial half. Once they got going it was tough to stop them. Ably led by Roshan Weeraratne, his brother Gayan, Richard Dharmapala, Dhanushka Ranjan, Fazil Marija and Thilina Wijesinghe all were in peak form in the season finale. In forwards play it was Yakoob Ali and Damith Dissanayake who stood out for the hill capital outfit. With the introduction of Sharo Fernando and Rahul Silva in the latter half saw the game swing in favour of Havelock SC. However, the gap was too much for the Colombo side to erase, especially in the den of the champions.
Havies drew first blood in the 8th minute of the game when Kandy line was caught off side. Fly half Hirantha Perera was on target with the penalty kick. Five minutes later Kandy equalized through a Thilina Wijesinghe penalty. A few minutes later a sweeping three quarter move saw Kandy score through their centre in Gayan Weeraratne, Thilina added the extra points. Gayan who was unstoppable with his powerful runs scored a second time within minutes after scoring his first try. Thilina was on target with the kick.
Then came the experience of Fazil Marija and he dummied covering nearly 30 metres to touch down. Thlina’s conversion took Kandy to a 24-03 lead at the breather.
After the turn around Havies dominated the proceedings with some powerful forwards’ play helped by Sharo Fernando. Centre Nishon Perera scored two back to back tries with Hirantha Perera converting one of them. But Thilina who could not be kept out of the game put over a neat 30 metre drop goal to take Kandy to safety at 27-15. In another forwards rush Havies hit back by scoring through their replacement forward, Liston Flatley. But it was Kandy’s day as they took play deep into the Havies 22′ and with ball in hand Fazil kicked to the deep left corner to see the electrifying paced winger, Richard Dharmapala touching down to take Kandy through with a 32-20 win.
For purposes of record, yesterday’s Clifford Cup triumph was Kandy’s 21st in the last 25 years and the win also saw Kandy SC complete the double (league and knock-out) for the 2017 season.
