Sports

Sports

Kandy scrapes through in thriller

By Aubrey Kuruppu

Kandy scrape through
Kandy-15 CR-14

It was fast and furious as befits a clash of titans. There was the odd bout of fisticuffs and a couple of yellow cards were flashed. But at the end of it all, the champions of local rugby - Kandy SC - scraped through by a whisker beating the CR by 15 points (1 goal, 1 try, 1 penalty) to 14 (1 goal, 1 penalty goal) at Nittawela yesterday.

Territorially, CR had the better of the game and they caused scattered wits among the Kandy players. Their use of the maul was quite brilliant and above all, they had danger-man Jayasinghe well marked.

With Jayasinghe kept under wraps as it were, the at times villain and at times hero Nalaka Weerakkody decided to play a more important part in the proceedings. His up and under tookplay just CR’s 22, and then he flung a long pass to the unmarked Jayasinghe to touch down near the corner flag. This was after eight minutes. Sheriff missed out on a kickable penalty and this eventually proved crucial.

CR asserted themselves thereafter. A couple of passes which may have ended in tries were missed by the right winger.

Sheriff’s conversion of the penalty try put the visitors in the lead. CR were dominating at this stage and it was no surprise when centre Achalanka, who was used as a battring ram, powered his way through and scored by the posts. Sheriff’s conversion made it 14-5 in favour of CR and lemons were taken at this stage.

Rodrigo missed a pass near his goal line and off a subsequent scrum the scrum half’s pass went way over the dead ball line. Off the ensuing five yard scrum, Sameera de Silva crept through to score after Marija made the break. Weerakkody put it over to make the score 14-12.

CR seemed to lose their dominant edge when the rains came down ten minutes from the end. They were penalized and Weerakkody made no mistake with a slightly angular kick.

At the end of a hectic and at times bitter contest, there was no unbeaten team left in the tournament. Referee Aruna Jayasekera could take some credit for coping well with all the pressure.