Police face man mountain in Kandy
by Hafiz Marikar
The defending champions of the inter club rugby League Kandy Sports
Club will host Police Sports Club in their return match at Nittawela
today and a quality game is expected.
Kandy will be minus their captain Fazil Marija who is sidelined due
to a hip injury and Roshan Weeraratne a former captain will take the
reins against Police who have lifted their game over the past couple of
weeks with some improved performances.
Police rugby chief Hafeel Marso said the match will be an occasion
for his players to test their new found form and potential ahead of the
knock-out tournament with Kandy able to provide the perfect match.
Kandy are now the most dangerous team having already secured the
League title with a clear lead over their nearest rivals Havelocks. Many
eyes will be focussed on live-wire Nigel Ratwatte who scored
impressively in Kandy's last two games where both the forwards and backs
did everything according to plan although there were a few hiccups.
If Kandy continue in the same vein Police will be in for a torrid
time. But Kandy's president Udaya Balasuriya is looking forward to more
improvements from his boys especially when it comes to ball handling by
the reserve players taking the field in the second half after the game
has been well secured.
It will however be interesting to see how the Kandy back-line
performs in the absence of Marija.
Fly-half Arshad Jamaldeen, forward Buvaneka Udangamuwa, fullback
Nigel Ratwatte and center-three-quarter Lavanga Perera will be the
players that Police will have to pay extra attention to.
It is possible in today's match that Kandy will give more thought to
working on their driving mauls that Police will find hard to contend
with.
Kandy SC: Piyumal Manchanayake, Damith Dissanayake, Kishore Jehan,
Shehan Dimithri, Gayan Attanayake, Heshan Kalhara, Shehan Pathirana,
Buwaneka Udangamuwa, Roshan Weeraratne (Captain), Arshad Jamaldeen,
Dansha Dyan, Gayan Weeraratne, Lavanga Perera, Vishvamithra Jayasinghe,
Nigel Ratwatte
Police SC: Terrence Henry, Rasitha Jayanga, Udara Gayan, Romesh
Achirige (Captain), Charles Praveen, Sharo Fernando, Chanaka
Harischandra, Bilal Hassan, Sudam Parinda, Mohammed Sheriff, Chamara
Dabare, Lasintha de Costa, Musheen Faleel, Chula Susantha, Reza Mubarak
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