Kandy beat CR & FC takes Clifford Cup

by S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN, Kandy Sports Corr.

Kandy Sports Club stand off a stiff second half challenge by CR and FC to register a 10 points (1 goal, 1 penalty) to 6 (2 penalties) win to take the Caltex Clifford Cup rugby championship in the finals played at the Nittawela Rugby stadium in Kandy yesterday. At half time Kandy led 10-0.

With this win Kandy completed the rugby triple having earlier won the Inter Club Rugby Sevens and the Caltex League Championship earlier this season.

This win also helped Kandy to take the lead for the most number of wins in the Clifford Cup having won it 15 times against 14 by CR and FC. CR and FC’s 14 wins were spread over 59 years having first won it in 1950. Kandy first won the Clifford Cup in 1992 and have won it except in 1993, 1998 and 2006 in which years they did not participate in this tournament to lodge their protests for shifting the Kandy matches to Colombo.

Kandy kept the scoreboard moving in the 9th minute when a CR player was spotted offside and fullback Saliya Kumara converted a 35 metre penalty. Kandy 3-0.

Two minutes later CR and FC kept attacking and almost scored before they were thwarted by a desperate by Kandy’s stand off Fazil Marija which nearly ended in a try for Kandy with the ball ending in the goal area. In the 30th minute of play a kick ahead by CR’s Suriyabandara was collected clean by Kandy’s Fazil Marija who sprinted a few metres before sending a long pass to Sanjeewa Jayasinghe who in turn returned the pass to Fazil Marija who showed a clean pair of heels to four defenders and ran across to score under the post.

Saliya Kumara added the extra points. Kandy led 10-0. That was the last time Kandy scored. But after the turn around the red shirts started dominating the proceedings through their forwards led by their No. 8 Dushantha Lewke who had an outstanding game. If Lewke had only the support when it mattered CR could have even won this game.

In the 10th minute of this half Saliya Kumara missed a 45 metre penalty for Kandy.

In the 12th minute Kandy was penalised in the rucks and fullback Reza Mubarak converted a 30 metre penalty. CR 3-10.

In the 25th minute Kandy was again penalised in the rucks and Reza Mubarak knocked over a 35 metre penalty to close the gap. CR 6-10.

Three minutes later another penalty awarded to the red shirts saw the kick taken by fullback Reza Mubarak had the misfortune of striking the horizontal bar and rebound into play. A little effort could have ended in a try for CR. The final stages of the match saw both teams striking hard to get the decider but the defences of both teams held.

The final whistle sounded by referee Pradeep Fernando would have been like a soothing balm to the Kandy team as they had managed another win.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Caltex Kishu Gomez was the chief guest and he distributed the award.