It was complete carnage in the fields of Nittawela where the Airmen were blasted in to smithereens by Kandy SC with no fragments to be collected; score line reading 93 points in favor to 5.
Kandy SC avenging a loss at the hands of rivals Navy SC in their own backyard two weeks ago, plummeted the foreign-player-less Air Force to the depths of despair, leaving them absolutely defenceless in the face of wave after wave of fast-paced rugby by Kandy.
Kandy played in their second outfit this evening with the likes of Fata’nu and Sean Wijesinghe being rested for the remaining games, it was time for the fresh faces to gleam in the Kandy jersey. Kandy started off preceding in style as Richard Dharmapala crossed over for the first of the Kandy when he side stepped through the left corner. With Thilina Wijesinghe converting precisely, it gave the Kandy an early lead. With an unexpected confronting lead, the Airmen responded violently which left the audience amazed as flyhalf chipped a cross which was successfully collected by the wing three Prasanna Kulakulasooriya who scored on the right corner.
The Air force try livened- up the spirits of Nittawela with a subtle twist building up but the energy did not sustain for long. Just after the restart, the fired up Gayan Weerakoon side stepped through the defense passing the ball over to Richard Dharmapala who scored in the farther right for try #2. That was just the beginning of mayhem for the visitors who were left mere bystanders for the rest of the match. A long passage of the try scoring ensued next. Lasitha Attanagalla who was in as prop forward scored through a forward maul for the next try of Kandy SC. The first half saw Kandy SC saw attacking through their forwards as it followed Piyumal Manchanayaka who straddled through for two consecutive tries both being efforts through the pack.
The first half saw the likes of the boot of Thilina Wijesinghe who kicked in two coversions and finally a penalty to conclude proceedings for the half as matters concluded at 27-5.
The second half was a one way traffic venture where the Kandy SC dominated all forms of play ranging from offense to kicking. Piumal Manchanayaka and David Hallefouna crossed over for the first and second tries of the second half while the spectacle try was where he covered over 70m before passing it on to Gayan Weeraratna who scored the try underneath the posts. Tries came flooding in from all directions of the ground and both Samisoni and Hallefouna scored two tries a piece while Richard Dharmapala went on to secure his hatrick when he crossed over through a outer pass through Gayan Weeraratna. With scores ticking akin to a scoreboard in a cricket match, Kandy ended up with scores of 93 points in reply to Air Force’s mere 5 points.
This was Kandy’s highest ever score this season preceeding their previous score of 69 points which was against CH in the season opener. This was a formidable performance by the home team but it was sad to see the Air men giving up and showing very poor form of play which was quite dissatisfactory to notice and Kandy exploited the situation driving in nail after nail into the coffin. The game was not a clean one after all with several stopovers coming on due to unlawful play where three players of the Air Force team were sin binned and a Kandy player also getting the card.
With Kandy rejoicing over victory, the day’s game saw prospects of new talent emerging in the red, blue jersey as they go in to a break marking the conclusion of the first round of play in the Dialog Club rugby season.
