Kandy at full strength today against Navy

by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr

RUGBY: The defending Caltex League Champions Kandy Sports Club will be at full strength when they take their ‘bug bear’ in their last two encounters Navy Sports Club in a key Caltex Rugby League tournament match to be played at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium in Kandy - today (Sunday) at 4.30 p.m. (June 27).

The Sailors created two major upsets when these two teams met on the last two occasions at Welisara. In the ‘return’ game played at Welisara last year, Navy squeezed through to a 12-11 win over Kandy. Then this year in the first round game played also at Welisara Navy once again scored a try and went on to 14-13 win over the champions.

Thus it will be left to be seen whether Navy will make it three-in-a-row which no club had made over Kandy, since 1992 or whether Kandy will avenge those defeats in style?

For the record, it must be mentioned that last year in the first round Kandy Sports Club recorded an easy 32-3 win over Navy before all hell broke loose and the match had to be abandoned 11 minutes before full time.

Today’s match will be officiated by Henry Mason of Singapore Rugby Referees Society and the rugby fans will welcome this move for a foreign referee for an important clash such as this. Kandy Sports Club has the best chance of winning the Caltex League title while the Sailors have an outside chance. Both teams must win all their remaining games to have a ‘go’ at the title.

Former Singer Sri Lanka Limited Chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya will be the Chief Guest for this match. Hemaka Amarasuriya has done a lot for kandy’s rugby by sponsoring the Kandy Sports Club for a number of years and also the Singer Sri Lanka International Rugby Sevens for a number of years which brought in a number of foreign countries to play in this tournament which was conducted for ten years. Therefore, Kandy Sports Club is proud to have him as the Chief Guest.

Today’s game should produce red-hot rugby as the Sailors will strive hard to secure thier third successive win while Kandy will go all out to redeem thier lost prestige.

Today’s game is so important to both teams that the losers will go out reckoning for the championship title, Kandy Sports Club have a six-point lead over Navy in the table or points.

This will be also Kandy Sports Club’s last League at Nittawela as they will be playing thier next game against CR & FC Nittawela which will decide the championship title.

The Hony. Secretary of Kandy Sports Club Lesley Zoysa said that the tickets for this match will be available as the gates from 9.30 a.m. onwards today and the spectators could purchase them early to avoid the last minute rush.

KANDY SC (from) Kishore Jehan, Anuranga Walpola/Achala Perera, Erande Swarnatillake, Senaka Bandara, Buddhi Talagampola, Sajith Saranga, Kasun Silva, Dilip Selvam, Sean Wanigasekera, Roshan Weeraratne/Saliya Kumara, Fazil Marija (captain), Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Chamara Withanage, Pradeep Liyanage, Radhika Hettarachchi/Mohammed Jabbar, Mohammed Sheriff, Prasad Chathuranga, Shashika Jayawardena, Kasun Silva, Navinda Pullukuttiarachchi, Gayan Weeraratne, Aravinda Udangamuwa, Dharshana Ettipola, and Faizal Marija.

NAVY SC (from) Ransiri Peiris, Suranga Swarnatillake, Piumal Manachanayake, Daminda Pullukuttiatachchi, Manjula Ruwantillake, Kalana Amerasinghe, Gayashan Wijesinghe, Samantha Lakshan, Sumedha Nalawana, Tyronne Harrison, Dev Anand, Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Rohitha Rajapakse, Suranga Pushpakumara, Dilip Methruwan, Chula Samantha, Nuwan Hettiarachchi, Niranjan Wickremaratne, Kosala Tissera, Eranda Weerakoddy, and Sallendra Chandrasekera.