Kandy and CR in runaway wins

Ranjeeva Seneviratne

Defending champions Kandy Sports Club and their closest challengers CR and FC scored runaway wins over Army and Old Zahirians respectively in their Caltex 'A' Division League rugby matches played in Colombo on Saturday.

Kandy Sports Club turned in a dazzling display of open rugby to crush Army by the staggering margin of 83 points to 15 at Police Park on Saturday.

Their forwards and three quarters combined effectively as the lads from Kandy ran riot to pile up 52 points by the breather.

Sri Lanka fly half Fazil Marija stole the limelight in the first half by scoring a hat-trick of tries while Sri Lanka flanker Imran Bisthamin came to the fore in the next 40 minutes with another hat-trick of tries Winger Sanjeeva Jayasinghe and hooker Anuranga Walpola too scored two tries each as Kandy went on a scoring spree by crossing the soldiers goal line on 13 occasions.

The reigning President's Trophy champions CR and FC went on the rampage at Longden Place on Saturday to score a smashing 85-3 win over the minnows of 'A' Division rugby Old Zahirians Sports Club.

Former Sir Lanka player Mohamed Sheriff who returned to the team after missing the last two matches due to injury had an excellent game and scored two tries. Sri Lanka centre Lasintha de Costa and number eight Dushanth Lewke too stood out by scoring two tries each as the Longden Place club went onto cross the hapless Old Zahirians goal line on 15 occasions.

Havelocks Sports Club propelled by their power-packed forwards scored a hard fought 22-12 win over Police on Friday at Police Park.

Havelocks No. 8 Rajiv Ganapathy was a source of inspiration to his team-mates with a fiery display in the loose and was ably supported by Shafti Hassen, Rajiv Perera, Kavinda Jayasena, T. D. Seneviratne and Ravi Jayasuriya as the park club 'eight' outplayed their counterparts in the loose.

The Policeman won a large share of possession from he line outs with the duo of Pradeep Wilson and Nalin Archarige towering above the rest but the three quarters gave a pathetic display.

Fly half Harshana Wijeweera squandered the hard earned possession by kicking ahead aimlessly while on the few occasions he set the threes in motion centres Chula Susantha and Priyantha Ekanayake spilled their passes which resulted in the Policemen suffering their third successive defeat for the season.

The formidable CH and FC notched up their third successive win by beating Air Force by 25 points to 8 on Sunday at Ratmalana to stay in contention for the League title.

The lads from Maitland Crescent who took a 10-3 lead at the breather scored two more tries in addition to a penalty in the second half to win comfortably.