How did CR’s title defence fall like house of cards?

• Kandy Sports Club dominated the Inter-Club League Rugby Tournament to secure the title during the weekend emerging as the unbeaten champions setting up a stunning farewell for their outgoing star Nigel Ratwatte. 

Kandy smashed Havelocks by 50 points to 24 in the last game of the tournament to register their 11th win in as many games. With ten bonus points, they ended up with 65 points while Havies finished with 49 points being the runners-up while much fancied CR had to settle for third place with 48 points. 

At the beginning of the season, CR appeared to be the clear favourites having won the league the season before. It took a few seasons, but head coach Dushantha Lewke made a system to dominate the league for a longer period of time, so how did the champions from Longden Place fell like a house of cards? One of the strongest attributes of the CR side from last season was their third row with Adeesha Weeratunga and Lasindu Ishan dominating teams. When number eight Omalka Gunaratne rejoined them ahead of the ongoing season, it only made them even stronger, but so what went wrong for the most feared pack of the competition?

Lasindu Ishan - probably one of the most underrated players in Sri Lanka rugby was unavailable for most of the season with injury which was a major blow for the Red Shirts. His presence on the field as a leader is probably as important as his impact as a player having played so well for a long period. 

He led Science College for knockout championship many years ago as a schoolboy against all the odds, so CR really did miss him when he was injured? Gunaratne himself was injured for a couple of games, but Lasindu Ishan was the player they missed the most. While CR lost a few games this season, the most damaging results came at the hand of Havies when the Rajaratne brothers ran riot to demolish CR in a high

scoring encounter. This defeat made it mission impossible for CR who needed to beat Kandy twice and then having to expect Kandy to lose points elsewhere as well. This defeat mathematically made it really difficult for CR. Further, the particular defeat would have destroyed their morale being one of the best defences in the competition to have let-in so many tries in one game, all of a sudden. 

Lewke seems to be a coach who really believes in his players. It worked out for him last season, but perhaps he might have to look for options at the last line of defence moving forward as Murshid Doray had a pretty ordinary season so far. 

He went missing in key games and missed kicks which were supposed to be pretty straightforward. Of course, he is a young kid making his mark quietly, but surely he is not even in top five fullbacks in Sri Lanka at the

moment. CR could either be the team that they were for a couple of decades being a proper mid table team giving opportunities for school leavers or else they could take inspiration from Kandy to be a ruthless team that dominates the league for years. 

Nonetheless, any of this could take nothing away from Kandy and what they achieved this season. They were simply magnificent especially with such a young pack to do what they achieved. 

A few years ago when Kandy used to dominate the league with some of the best forwards of Sri Lanka rugby such as Shehan Pathirana, Sean Wijesinghe and Jason Dissanayake, the only lesser known player at the time was Tharindu Chathuranga, but this season he was the only known player in that Kandy forward pack, and he played his part like a proper star. 

While Ratwattes were highlighted rightly so, for their brilliance, one should not forget how well players like Tharindu Chathuranga played to regain that title.