The weekend started off with the defending champs entertaining the Army at Havelock Park. It was always going to be a tight game and Sandun Herath once again showed his attacking prowess.
There is no doubt that the winger is well on course to be untouched as the leading try scorer among the local players. He broke the 13-08 impasse that Army managed to hold onto giving themselves a shout, and the 20-08 scoreline was too much for the Army to overhaul in the end.
Since their superb start to the season by beating Police and UCL, Army have fallen away a little bit. They are still a threat though and need to marshall some cohesiveness to support their imposing foreign players.
Sharks v CH
In the battle of the underdogs, things were a little too hot down under for the travelling CH team against the Beliatta based Sharks. The home team ran up their most impressive score for the season yet, and the 47 points to 20 win will give them a good boost coming out of their Christmas break.
CH did manage to score 20 points though, and will continue to battle for their first win.
CR v Navy
The most anticipated match of the weekend didn’t disappoint, but did so for the wrong reasons. Well, not entirely, because there was some good rugby played by both teams.
Unfortunately though, Navy’s 31 – 27 win was marred by a horrendous howler from the referee. I’ve explained the mistake itself in some detail elsewhere on this site, but having watched rugby for the last 25 years in Sri Lanka, it is pretty clear to me that this is perhaps the most grievous error committed by an official yet.
Apart from that though, Navy’s blend of size and power was difficult to handle although CR tried manfully. In the individual matchups they will trouble every team they meet in the backline and that is why Navy are still unbeaten.
Lutumailagi coming on as a sub against tired defences, completely destroys the opposition and Navy have been very canny in the way they play. If they can include Bilal Hassen in their third row, they will be even more devastating. It is a shame for Navy that the referee’s error took the gloss of their win, in a close entertaining game that had eight tries between the teams.
Police v UCL
This game was closer than UCL would have liked it for a fair while. Police are getting better as the competition progresses, and their foreign players have made a significant difference.
Imthie Marikar the coach of the Lions will realise that conceding 22 points to the Police in a 39-22 victory is a considerable leakage.
Kandy v Air Force
Having been thwarted in their record attempt by the weather, against the Hambantota Sharks the Kandy SC team hammered the living daylights out of Air Force by 93 – 7.
The highest score of the tournament so far, does justice to the most cohesive – even if not the most powerful – attacking three quarter line in the league. David Halaifonua and Wilwara were once again in the thick of things and the mammoth score shows that Kandy are finding the sort of fluency that eluded them in the early season.
The Christmas break came and went, and this weekend was supposed to showcase the previously postponed Havelocks v Sharks game, which was blacked out by floodlight failure.
However, despite the readiness of the Havies, the Hambantota Sharks failed to show. Mystery shrouds their refusal to turn up for the game. However, in my first week’s review I thought that this game might not be replayed as sharing points is beneficial both to the Sharks and also to Havelocks’ contenders.
On the flip side though, Havelocks have only themselves to blame for the malfunctioning lights, and if the Sharks seek to take advantage of that, then so be it. All in all though a bit of a bad taste in the mouth, and additional baggage for the Navy v Havelocks game.
