Kandy trounce CR 36-8

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy Sports Corr.

A superlative first half performance saw the defending champions Kandy Sports Club trounce CR and FC by 36 points (3 goals, 3 tries) to 8 (1 try, 1 penalty in their Caltex League Rugby tournament match played before a large crowd at Nittawela yesterday. At half time Kandy Sports Club led 29-3.

A thin but persistent drizzle fell for almost the full duration of the match which made conditions under foot wet but the Kandy team resulted under these conditions to maul their opponents. The winners excelled both in the line outs and the scrums and also held the advantage in the loose to prevent their opponents from making a recovery at any stage of the game.Much was expected from the Red Shirts, but they disappointed and their play especially in the first half was disjointed which allowed the Kandy team to over-run them.

The game was barely three minutes old when a Kandy player was penalised for killing the ball and CR's fullback Mohamed Sheriff put over a 30 metre penalty for CR and FC to take the lead, perhaps the only time in the match.But Kandy bounced back the 11th minute when stand off Fazil Marija broke off and sliced through CR's defence with a breezy run to score for left.

Scrum half Roshan Weeraratne failed to add the extra points. Kandy led 5-3. Referee: Priyantha Gunaratne refereed.