The international rugby calendar kept the Clubs at bay for the first time this year, and it seems to have been a good move from the SLRFU.
The national sevens team did excellently to be no.3 in the Asian circuit and the A5N earlier this year were great performances from the national side. The Serendib Cup nearly undid all that good work but we salvaged a result in the final game and need to address some issues before we take on the giants of Asia early next year.
Review of Last Week
The first weekend of the Dialog A Division Rugby League was last weekend and the hasty postponent of the start of the season to accommodate the Serendib Cup led to all sorts of scheduling nightmares, with two games having to be shifted to Monday. Nobody plays rugby on a poya you see.
In the first, and most anticipated game of the weekend CR&FC who have created a bit of a buzz in rugby circles too an air of expectancy to Nawalapitiya to take on the Upcountry Lions. If was always going to be a tough place to travel to, but the 45 – 12 reversal was not one the red jerseys were expecting. With less than optimal preparation, they were unable to take avantage of the nearly 50 mins that Upcountry played with Jose Raikabula, as they lost their captain Ishan Noor early on in the piece as well.
Morale seemed to fall, and the big UCL foreigners attacked the fly half channel and made a lot of ground putting the dangerous Ratwatte and Sooriyabandara into space. These two lads are gifted with ball in hand and it rained tries for the home team. CR seemed jaded and lacklustre and will have to question why they couldn’t score tries with a dominant scrum.
Kandy did as they expected to in the Nittawela fortress and even without the talismanic Fazil Marija, managed to put nearly 70 points on the board against a hapless CH. The worm surely has turned and CR and CH, the big name clubs from the turn of the century find themselves playing for pride. They remain the truly members Clubs and are finding it hard to contain the extravagance of Sugar Daddys and Defence Budgets. Air Force too, are staying true to their principles, and are suffering on the field as a result.
Anuruddha Wilwara and Lavanga Perera lit up the Kandy hills with some superb broken field running the pair have shown that the likes of Liyanage, Jayasinghe, Marija and Kumara have a second tier in waiting. Lavanga Perera was not brilliant in Singapore, but was very good in attack and defence against Poland. Kandy as usual have spent wisely on Andrew Porter, who is a great tight man and superb line out exponent, and their Kiwi fly half, by all accounts, is the puppet master. It will be good to see a Kandy side playing the sort of rugby we are used to seeing them play.
Navy also signalled their intent with a 33 – 3 grounding of Air Force. With Nuwan Hettiarachchi back in form, it seems that Navy have a back line that can do some damage headed by Setefano Cakau, who is back at Welisara this year. Welisara is always a difficult place to travel to and Air Force with the defence services rivalry would have put their bodies on the line.
In the closest match of the weekend we saw Police narrowly being beaten by a gutsy Army side by 15 – 14. These two teams could both cause upsets on their day, and the battle in the mid table could be as ferocious as the one at the top. Army look strong and sharp and Police will need to ensure that their squad depth helps them to last all season. Last year, their foreign players really sparked them to life and almost carried them to some impossible victories. Army’s foreigners are big, but whether they can last the huff of 80 mins is different question altogether.
The final match of the evening ended in the first fiasco of the season. Havelocks lights failed, and the Hamba Sharks were more than happy to run back to the sheds after hanging around for three quarters of an hour. Despite the lights coming on after that time, the Sharks refused to play and the game – we are told – will be rescheduled. Since it is the hosts’ responsibility to get the game going, Havies will have only themselves to blame if they have to share the points with the Sharks. The Hambanthota lads on the other hand, will be far more happy to take the two points and get their season off to some sort of a start.
It was a weekend where all the front runners signalled their title intentions. Navy, Kandy and Upcountry look like the teams that will contest for the top 3 slots while the mid table looks very open. It’s still the first weekend though, so way too early to tell.
Preview
Once again CR will be part of the most anticipated match of the weekend. They will be hoping that they meet those expectations when they host Kandy at Longdon Place. The Red Shirts are looking to bounce back from their opening defeat and have responded well in this week’s training. They were dominant at scrum time and should manage to hold sway over Kandy in the set piece.
However, Kandy have always, always, raised their game to play CR and their big stars either starting from the bench or running on, will know that they’ll have to prove themselves to avoid getting dropped by younger players. Marija is likely to start at outside centre – a position he has occupied with distinction before, for Sri Lanka – and Liyanage and Lavanga perera will likely share the inside centre position. Kandy have pace to burn on the wings and the CR pack will have to ensure they don’t play too fast and too loose.
The distinct advantage for Kandy will be the experience of half back Roshan Weeraratne when compared to the young Kavindu de Costa. The youngest Costa brother has fared well in sevens rugby, but this will be a real test for him in defence.
Neil Footie the Kandy coach, knows he has a legacy to uphold and will do his damndest to make a statement in this grudge match.
Another game that might be the first upset of the season will be when Army host Upcountry Lions at Diyagama. The ground is an unknown quantity for me, and will be for most of the players as well. Army are a determined bunch and if the refereeing is good, we might see a game that goes into the last ten minutes on a knife edge.
Clearly the ITM Cup pedigree foreign players that Upcountry have will start favourites, but they will not want to underestimate the physical challenge a team like Army will pose. Coach Ben McDougal will no doubt have devised a plan. Let’s see what it is.
Navy host Police at Welisara and this will definitely be a sterner test than Air Force posed. Even so Navy should be winning this one easily. Their new foreign no. 8 has arrived and he should be keen to show off his wares as well.
In the two games on Sunday, CH will host defending Champs Havelocks. The Havies have lost Lee Keegel, but he is replaced by the more than adequate Danushka Ranjan the former Peterite star coming back from a knee injury. With an abundance of talent in the second and third rows, Havelocks are likely to dominate this game and CH will want to do as much as they can to keep the score down in this match.
Meanwhile, also on Sunday the Sharks play their first game on their home Hambanthota soil, when they take on Air Force. This is likely to be a bottom of the table clash, and the Airmen must be applauded for sticking to their guns and playing only home grown players, and regular Air Force enlisted players. It’s a gutsy move, but it is a principled one. And more often than not guts, and principles get you hammered.
All matches will be a 4pm kick off and not the usual 430pm kick off to avoid the rain and early sunset at this time of year.
All I can hope is that the refereeing doesn’t become the talking point of this weekend.
ThePapare will be streaming the CR&FC v Kandy game on Saturday and the CH&FC v Havelocks game on Sunday.
