It was not a good day for CR and FC who let the ball slip away from their grasp on several occasions from the start of the game to go down narrowly to Kandy SC in their Dialog second round League rugby match played at Longdon Place yesterday.
The final scores read Kandy SC 31 points (4 tries, 4 conversions, a penalty) to 26 (2 tries, 2 conversions, 4 penalties) by CR who had the chance to score in the final minutes but the ball slipped away from Omalka Gunaratne’s grasp and the match away.
Had CR scored at that final minute the scores would have been equal and the conversion would have given them a two-point win but it did not work out well for them.
Kandy SC should be commended for taking the game away from CR as they piled on 28 points within the first 20 minutes. They made full use of the spills made by CR and went on a scoring spree from the second minute itself.
The move began in the open and after Kandy skipper Roshan Weeraratne found the gap sent Anuruddha Wilwara over. Thilina Wijesinghe made the conversion easily.
Kandy scored again three minutes later when Uchitha Jayasuriya broke off a line-out and touched down. Wijesinghe was spot-on with the conversion. Then an infringement in the loose gave CR a penalty and Stephen Sivaraj made the conversion.
Kandy SC struck back in the eleventh minute when scrum half Roshan Weeraratne went over off a loose maul. Wijesinghe converted this one too and Kandy took the lead 21-3.
They widened this gap again when in the 20th minute then won a scrum and Weeraratne kicked ahead for flanker Shehan Pathirana to use his height collect the ball and fall over the line to score. Wijesinghe put over his fourth conversion and Kandy enjoyed a massive lead, 28-3.
CR managed to collect a few points through a try by Wajid Fawmy who went over on the blind side for their first try. Sivaraj kicked right to make it 10-28.
They were awarded two penalties after that and Sivaraj kicked right to go into half time with Kandy leading 28-16. It took just five minutes after the restart for CR to add to their tally. A penalty from 20 metres out saw Sivaraj kick right.
Play continued to remain in the middle with both sides now trying to find ways of increasing on their tally.
Kandy SC were not playing as well as they did in the first half but CR picked up on their game but found the defence of Kandy too good.
Kandy SC earned a penalty and realizing that it would be better to go for points took the kick at goal and Wijesinghe succeeded.
Now with CR intensifying in their attack they scored a try when they won a loose maul and sent centre Janidu Dilshan over.
Tharinda Ratwatte who came in for Sivaraj, put over the conversion to take them just five points behind Kandy SC with only about ten minutes remaining.
CR made a series of offensive moves and often they could not go ahead due to errors in handling at the vital moments.
Lawrence Wilkinson refereed.