Jason faces possible citing charges over punch

By Harsha Amarasinghe

Kandy flanker Jason Dissanayake faces an anxious wait for a possible citing charge after being sent to the sin-bin during their Dialog Inter-Club League Rugby clash against Navy Sports Club on Saturday.

The defending champions did grind out a crucial 33-19 victory in a home game up in Nittawela, but now faces the prospects of losing one of their most influential players, possibly for weeks.

The Sri Lanka international was dragged over the touchline by Navy prop forward Stephan Gregory in the latter stages of second half, and the pair tumbled into the Navy bench and a furious Dissanayake stood up and threw a punch at Gregory which earned himself a yellow card.

The pair was seen shaking hands at the end of game, but Dissanayake is now destined for a lengthy ban which may cause Kandy few problems given that he is extremely fast for a forward.

A product of Vidyartha College-Kandy, Dissanayake is generally a very calm player and it was quite surprising that a player of his calibre would throw a punch at an opponent. The 24-year-old a very polite lad and doesn’t even celebrate the tries he scores.

The former CR and FC player would learn on Wednesday whether he would be suspended or not, but the Navy Sports Club believes that Dissanayake’s action completely violates the rugby rules and regulations.

“I am submitting a report on that incident to Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) today (yesterday). One of our players (Stephan Gregory) was punched in the face by Kandy player Jason Dissanayake which is a huge offence. He got away with a yellow card on Saturday, but we expect SLR would look into this matter and take a proper action over the incident,” Navy head coach Mothilal Jayasekara told Daily Mirror.

Kandy also had one of their senior players in the form of Shehan Pathirana suspended for four weeks due to an accidental stamp on CH and FC number eight Chathura Dilshan in the opening week. The former Royal skipper returned to the side during the Navy game, but his fellow flanker could well be out for a few weeks.