Marija man of the moment
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A Kandy player grapples for the ball (Picture by Thilak
Perera)
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Kandy captain Fazil Marija showed just why he is the kind of big
stage player when it matters the most as he scored a match-winning try
fifteen minutes before the end as Havelocks crashed to an 18-8 defeat in
their first round League rugby match at Havelock Park under lights
yesterday.
Overall Kandy never looked a team that could lose, quite in contrast
to Havelocks who made several ball handling errors that cost them dearly
in the absence of crack centre Dhanuska Ranjan who was down with an
injury.
But Marija produced his class act to seal the issue when he hacked a
fumbled ball by Havelocks full back Kevin Dixon to charge down collect
and score in a swooping move from midway.
Weeraratne made the conversion and Havelocks took an unbeatable 18-3
lead after Kandy winger Vishwamithra Jayasinghe scored in the first half
to take an 8-0 lead at half time.
Havelocks scored an unconverted try 10 minutes before the end to make
the scores 18-8, but it was too late and never enough to subdue a Kandy
team whose back-line was faster and collectively motivated on the run. |
