Kandy SC and CR suffer shock defeats

by Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Defending champions Kandy Sports Club and CR and FC suffered shock defeats on the first day of the second-leg of the Dialog Professional Rugby Sevens worked off at Longden Place yesterday. The formidable CR and FC were beaten by arch-rivals Havelocks by 12 points to nil in their very first match helped by two superb tries by centre Dilip Methruwan and winger Ruchira Rathnage one of which was converted by Samantha Lakshan.

Eight time champions of the club rugby sevens Havelocks scored another smashing win over CH and FC by 24 points to 14 in their second match of Group A. Dilip Methruwan (2) Ravi Jayasuriya (1) and Zakir Badurdeen (1) scored the tries for the Park Club.

But in their final group match the lads from Havelock Park surrendered meekly to Kandy SC by 29-7.

The red shirts made amends for their defeats at the hands of Havelocks with a sensational 24-19 win over the mighty Kandy SC in their second match. Niroshan Karunanayake (1), Mohamed Sheriff (1) and Ashan de Costa (1) scored the tries for CR and FC as a scores stood at 19-all just before the final whistle but a superb last minute try by Suranga Pushpakumara gave CR and FC a thrilling 24-19 win.

Kandy Sports Club which had won the rugby sevens title for six years in a row began their campaign with an impressive 24-7 win over the strong CH and FC with centre Pradeep Liyanage, scrum half Saliya Kumara, winger Sanjeewa Jayasinghe and prop Radhika Hettiarachchi scoring the tries two of which were converted by Saliya Kumara. After losing to CR in their second match, the defending champions came back storming to score smashing 29-7 win over Havelocks in their last Group A match. Centre Pradeep Liyanage (1), scrum-half Saliya Kumara (2), prop Erande Weerakoddy (1) and Dushanth Lewke (1) scored the tries the Kandy SC while Dilip Methruwan scored the solitary try for Havelocks.

The runners-up of the cup championships in the first leg played at Bogambara, the Sri Lanka Army too suffered a shock defeat in the hands of Police by 5-19 but won their other two matches vs Jawatte Lions 30-0 and Sri Lanka Air Force 14-12. The Sri Lanka Air Force came off with flying colours with a smashing 22-10 win over the formidable Policemen and routed Jawatte Lions by 59-nil but went down fighting to Army in their last Group B match by 12 points to 14.

The CR and CH match too turned out to be a thriller. CR opened scoring through centre Mohamed Sheriff who scored under the post with Amjad Buksh adding the extra points. CH hit back with a superb try by Lakala Perera which was converted by Milinda Jayasinghe to make it 7-all. CR took the lead once again when Ashan de Costa sped over 40-metres to score under the post which was converted by Amjad Buksh but the lad from Maitland Crescent equalised with a superb try by Niranjan Wickremaratne with Milinda Jayasinghe making a superb conversion to make it 14-all.

Three minutes later CH grabbed the lead through a fine unconverted try by Milinda Jayasinghe. 19-14. But the red shirts came back storming to score twice through Ashan de Costa and Suranga Pushpakumara one of which was converted by Buksh to give them a 29-19 win.

At the end of the league matches Kandy Sports Club headed Group A followed by CR and FC, Havelocks and CH and FC while Air Force finished on top of Group B followed by Police, Army and Jawatte Lions.

The cup championships quarter-finals: Kandy SC vs Jawatte Lions, CR and FC vs Army, Havelocks vs Police and CH and FC vs Air Force.