Kandy SC favourites against CH in curtain-raiser today | Daily News

Kandy SC favourites against CH in curtain-raiser today

Kandy SC captain Gayan Weeraratne   -CH&FC skipper Rohitha Rajapaksa
Kandy SC captain Gayan Weeraratne -CH&FC skipper Rohitha Rajapaksa

Gigantic Kandy Sports Club will battle it out with the new look CH and FC in their opening match of the 2017/18 season in the Dialog ‘A’ Division inter-club league rugby tournament match at Race Course grounds today with the kick-off scheduled for 4.00pm.

Kandy SC will once again start the season as hot favourites to win the league championship but will have stiff opposition coming their way from teams like CR & FC, CH and FC and the three armed forces Navy SC, Army SC and Air Force SC as these teams are very well equipped to spoil Kandy’s party.

Certainly Kandy SC will not have a cake walk to retain the league that easy this time around.

For today’s game Kandy will put out their best team with several key Sri Lanka national players including playmaker Fazil Marija down to play. Hence they will have the upper hand against the CH.

Meanwhile the Maitland Crescent club will start with skipper Rohitha Rajapaksa up front at fly half pairing off with either experienced Piyum Jayasinghe or Wesleys nippy scrum half Avishka Lee.

Also ex-Navy and Sri Lanka national player Lee Keegal will play in the pivotal position of centre, most probably along with Avantha Lee who is the twin brother of Avishka.

St.Anthony’s College Kandy star player Samuel Maduwantha will play in the starting line-up as full back, manning the important last line of defence for CH. Going by the two team cards Kandy is having a slight advantage over the young CH side who go into this game as the underdogs. On their day CH and FC will play a different brand of rugby to topple any side by creating a shock victory since the match will take place at Race Course which has now become their home ground. Last season Kandy won both league games.

Havies have edge over Police

The battle between two top rugby sides Havelock’s SC and Police SC in their Dialog ‘A’ division inter-club league rugby first round opening match for the 2017/18 season at Havelock Park today should turn out to be a close game. The match will kick off at 6.30 pm.

Havies should have the edge over the somewhat depleted Police outfit which has lost several of their key players to other clubs this season.

Havelock’s have been training really hard under their new captain and Sri Lanka national player Jason Melder and are determined to pull off a morale-boosting win. Police SC on the other hand trained really hard this week under the watchful eyes of their new head coach veteran Shamly Nawaz who is also a former CR & FC, Sri Lanka national under 20 coach and the present head coach of Zahira College rugby team.

The cops will have to be at their level best if they are to beat the Havies outfit in their own den at Havelock Park. But looking at the two teams, Havelocks will definitely go out as the favourites to clinch this contest. 


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