Kandy steals the limelight with smashing win..

Defending champs Kandy Sports Club stole the limelight on the opening weekend of the Dialog inter-club rugby season when they cruised through in splendid fashion to beat CH and FC 80-3.

Such a scoreline was expected when Kandy had by half time run up a total of 46-3. For Kandy both their forwards and three quarters combined effectively to create this smashing win. In the end they ran circles around the hapless CH side that had no answers to cope up with the enormous attack carried out by the hill capital lads.

The man who created this sensational victory for Kandy was none other than their national centre Gayan Weeraratne who went onto score a hat-trick of tries running amok at the inexperience CH three quarters.

Navy beat Air Force

Navy forwards gave of a brilliant display under the leadership of ex-Navy and national captain Yoshitha Rajapaksa to cruise to a straight forward 38-8 win over Air Force at Navy grounds.

Their three quarters ran through every time they received the ball and scored, with veteran fly half Dev Anand feeding his speedy line at every given opportunity.

Second row forward ex-national player Sathya Ranatunga played a tremendous game scoring two breathtaking tries towards the end.

Havies edge out Police

Havelock’s SC was really lucky to beat the rejuvenated Police side by 28-19 after been led 13-9 at half time. They should owe this win largely to their ex-Royal College prop forward Dushmantha Priyadarshana who single-handedly brought victory to his side by scoring a try and having hand in other two tries where he sent Ganuka Dissanayaka and Sudarshana Muthuthanttri over. New fly half Samantha Lakshan had a good day with the kicks where he successfully put over despite the handicap with the wet ball.

Police who played well in patches lost the game due to their entire forwards not engaged in break downs quickly other than Billal Hassan. They were really slow arriving at the ball.

Police had a good chance of winning this game but their substitute scrum half Mohamad Afzal who had a grand game made a silly blunder where he knocked on while touching down for a try in the in-goal area.

CR and FC down Army

CR made a superb late rally where they came from behind to beat the fighting Army outfit by 35-15 after trailing 6-10 at lemons at Longden Place.

Army shocked the entire crowd present with their fierce tackling and sizzling runs. CR who did not play to their full potential got their act together in the last 18 minutes of the game thanks to their coaching staff getting the combinations right by shifting Ashan de Costa to fly half and bringing in Dilan Zoysa from the bench to operate from the base of the scrum.

Hero for CR was winger Makalanka Pramoda who scored two scintillating tries. The kicking of full back Prince Chamara was exceptional where he put over a penalty from the 50 meter mark. But the unsung hero was their young “Alfred Hensmen” like national flanker Jason Dissanayaka who single-handedly created the opportunities by punching holes at the Army defence to send Mekalanka, Dilan and Shashan over for tries.