Kandy Sports Club notched up their 17th victory this season when they outplayed Navy SC by 21 points (3 tries, 2 penalties) to 7 points (1 goal) in the Clifford Cup final, which was team lynchpin Fazil Marija’s farewell outing, at Longdon Place yesterday.
At halftime Kandy led 8-0. Although it was the final, the rugby displayed by both teams was far below par. The game was littered with handling errors with both sides’ three quarters dropping the ball on numerous occasions. Kandy opted to play a territorial game while the Sailors chose to keep the ball with their heavier forwards. The two finalists also showed a lack of quality in the lineout department.
Kandy drew first blood in the second minute of the game when their skipper covered a good 30 metres, eluding several army defenders, before passing the ball on to his centre Dahanushka Ranjan to touch down. One more Nigel Ratwatte penalty gave Kandy an 8-0 lead at halftime.
Soon after the turnaround, Marija dropped a pass which led to his schoolmate Mohamed Abzal scoring a magnificent try for Navy. Thilina Weerasinghe added the extra two points to reduce the deficit. Although Navy reduced the gap, Kandy refused to allow Marija’s farewell party to be spoiled and Ranjan planted his second try before Shehan Pathirana wrapped things up with one of his own. Thilina Wijesinghe, who replaced Nigel, contributed one penalty for Kandy. The game was refereed by Sam Jones from Australia. The assistant referees were Les Cash and Rohan Fernando.
This was the 22nd occasion on which Kandy won the Clifford Cup knockout rugby tournament. They first won it in 1992 under Mariuce Joachim.
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