Army brought Kandy Sports Club’s unbeaten run to an end in a sensational result in their Dialog League rugby championship match here at Nittawela yesterday.
Army won the match 23-22 as Kandy SC who usually thrives on luck while on the verge of losing had nothing to save them this time and nearly all their supporters were in mourning.
In the final minute of the game Kandy winger Dhanuska Ranjan appeared to score his third try of the match but it was disallowed by referee Sarath Madugalle after consulting the assistant referee as the try was ruled to have been scored off a forward pass.
Army were then awarded a penalty and they made no mistake in converting the kick to romp home winners in the season’s most shocking result so far.
But to the diehard supporters of Army the result may not have come as a surprise as their team played to a purpose and plan to win the match while Kandy made some silly mistakes in the match.
Army raked in their points from one goal, two tries and two penalties while Kandy had one goal and three tries in making up the points.
Army played as the better team in both halves and savoured a well earned 15-12 lead at half time marking the first time in the season that Kandy were made to trail at the end of the first half.
Kandy who were used to sending the ball down the line could do very little in the match as wet conditions also set in.
Each time Kandy SC looked settled to play a controlled game Army shifted gears and turned the tide in a fantastic display as the defending champions came under immense pressure to do something different which they could not.
At one stage in the second half Kandy had to play with 13 players with two of them yellow-carded.
Jason Dissanayake and Anurudha Wilwara scored the other two tries for Kandy while Thilina Wijesinghe did the goal kicking.
For Army the try scorers were Prabath Kumara, Nalaka Maduranmga and Gayan Salinda while Isuru Medagedera made the conversions and put over the penalties.