The next three weekends, is going to be crucial for Kandy Sports Club in the current Dialog rugby league tournament as Sri Lanka Rugby has decided to conduct a knockout league amongst the first four teams in the table to decide which team should be awarded the trophy.
This is unfair by Kandy SC as they have to play most of their matches in Colombo, besides the players are exhausted and the expenses are very high. The SLR doesn’t contribute in any way to the club and arranging additional matches is beyond the clubs reach financially.
As current table leaders Kandy SC will probably finish on top and deserve the trophy. The good news is the defending champions will be close to full strength for these games. They need to be able to withstand the pressure against CH & FC, CR & FC and Havelock SC.
Kandy SC need to beat each of these teams, if they are to win the league for the 20th time. They are under the chairmanship of former St. Anthony’s College, CH & FC, Kandy SC and Sri Lanka center Lasantha Wijesuriya, and they’ve got a very professional set-up comprising coach Sean Wijesinghe, assistant coach Fazil Marija and team manager Kapila Silva.
In the first round they beat all the clubs they met, Air Force SC, Army SC, Police SC, Navy SC, CR & FC, CH & FC and Havelock SC. In the second round they lost to Army SC and beat Navy SC, Air Force SC and Police SC. Last Saturday they crushed Navy Sports Club 63-31 in a try-fest at Nittawela.
In the last game against the sailors it took just 19 seconds for Kandy SC to take the lead from the rapidly advancing sailors, who took time to handle the ball and failed to take any points in the first quarter of the game.
Kandy ran the ball well in the first half to sore four tries against two, and at the final whistle Kandy SC had doubled it with 8 tries, one penalty try against Navy SC’s 5.
Rajan Thilina Wijesinghe created a good impression by pocketing 36-points from four tries and eight conversions. He leads as the highest points scorer.