Second-string Kandy run riot at Nittawela

By Shamseer Jaleel at Nittawela
Kandy Sports Club, resting four of their regulars, continued their dominance in the Mastercard Inter-Club Rugby Tournament when they ran circles around the 9th-placed Navy Sports Club by 66 points (10 tries, 8 conversions) to 5 points (1 try) under wet and difficult conditions at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium last evening.
At the short breather, Kandy SC led 38-0.
Kandy completely dominated with their second-string outfit handing off the Sailors, who ran out of ideas. The young set of Kandy forwards stood out, with their number 8, Dahan Wickremarachchi, Dinal Ekanayake, Asiri Seneviratne, Danushka Ranjan, and Diluksha Dange, having a superb outing. Kandy went through a blitz of 10 tries, while the Navy outfit could only reply with a solitary try. Kandy looked dangerous on the attack, splitting the weaker Sailors’ defence, who were all over the place.
Kandy played without their three senior players, Nigel Ratwatte, Tarinda Ratwatte, and Kavindu Perera, for this encounter. Diluksha returned for his first game this season along with Shanushka Abeywickrema, while former Kingswoodians Hirusha Sampath and Ihshan Inoon made their debuts for Kandy, along with former Vidyartha skipper Gayan Perera.
Kandy drew first blood in the 3rd minute of the game through a forward’s rush that ended in a try for Kenula Hettiarachchi. The try was converted by Hirusha. A few minutes later, Thilina Bandara and Danushka touched down for Kandy to take the score to 19-0. With the game only 20 minutes old, Kandy scored their bonus point try through Dahan. There was time for two more first-half tries by Thilina and Dinal.
After the turnaround, Kandy scored more tries through Dahan, Ranjan, and Gayan. Sampath had good kicking accuracy in his debut game, putting over 8 of the try conversions, while Navy, who attacked in patches, scored a solitary try through burly prop Stephan Gregory.
This history-making encounter saw the first lady referee, Charani Liyanage, officiating as the main referee in a Club A Division encounter and she had a 
grand game.