The second week of Dialog Rugby had some good games and an upset, when Army overturned the fancied Upcountry Lions. The Lions though will have the services of Joketani Raikabula on hand this week, and he will want to put a few tries on the board for his careless red card two weeks ago.
The match of the weekend is likely to be when Navy travel upto Upcountry. The sailors – or hired deckhands, even – are unbeaten after two weeks and have won their matches comfortably. Their overnight win over the cops, gives them a bonus point and the momentum is with them. Upcountry have the edge in the halves, and after a dismal, wet journey to Diyagama, they’ll be quite happy to play host at Nawalapitiya this week too.
Navy are travelling for the first time, the maiden away game is always a bit of a hiccup. It’ll probably be a battle between the foreigners and it’s a pretty impossible game for me to pick. Navy are strong in the third row, with Hassen and Perera aided by the foreign no.8, but whether that combination will start is a question mark. For UCL much is expected of Srinath Sooriyabandara, but he is not nearly as effective in the fifteens game as he is at sevens. What is impressive though is the kick return of the Lions team. They counter attack with confidence and will only continue to get better at it. Both Ratwatte and Soori run it back with vision, and with Dev Anand’s long boot, they might have some opportunities coming their way.
It’s an impossible one to call. So I won’t. A draw perhaps?
There’s a Torrington derby on offer too. You can go back to the days when Apisi Nagata was playing for CH in the early 90’s to find their real dominance. Then they put together a decent team in the late 90’s and in 2000 managed to win some trophies, but since then both cricket and rugby at Maitland Crescent have gone off the boil. The recruitment of Sanath Martis this year is a smart one. He knows how to handle the players that CH will be left with after the cream of the crop have migrated to the big spending forces teams or sugar daddy teams. They scored 20 points against Havelocks and CR will take them lightly at their own peril.
That is exactly what they look like they are doing though, because coach Laga has made a raft of changes from the side that went down to Kandy last week. Rimzi Jamaldeen will have a tough task at fly half and Kavindu De Costa is spared his third outside half in as many games by being dropped himself. Rahul de Silva makes his first start for the Longdon Place club and CH will be sensing an outside chance of a win.
Given that CR have yet to score a try in 160 minutes of rugby, and that they are without their sole points scorer in Mubarak, who is replaced by veteran Pushpakumara, this derby game could be more interesting than people give it credit for.
The Sharks will once again host a game in Beliatta and Police will be looking for a win. The visiting team has played a couple of tough games, and that will hold them in good stead for what they hope will be their first win of the season. Police were a surprise team last year, and their fly half Sam kept them very much in the mix in every game. With an improved all round performance, they can definitely put up their first win of the season.
It is unlikely that Air Force will get off the ground when they meet Havelocks at Havelock Park. The Havies have got some very good foreign players and with the likes of Niroshan Fernando at fly half and Danushka Ranjan in the backs, they have some firepower. The forward pack is beasly strong with a host of national players, in Hasitha Perera, Sharo Fernando, Shehan Pathirana, Sudarshan Muthuthanthri to complement the direct style of skpper Warnakulasuriya.
Air Force have got a lot of heart, and as I’ve always said the principles to not use public money to pay rugby players. But it will hurt them in the field, and heart will not be enough against Havelocks who scored 50 last week.
Kandy survived a stern test last week against CR. They will know that despite the refereeing performance that slowed the game to CR’s advantage, the scoreline flatters the Kandy boys. This is one of the weaker Kandy sides of late, and they will have to rely on their outside backs to win the game for them again. Army will be even more physical than CR was last week and the Kandy forward pack are not overly happy with the collisions.
I sense the makings of another upset, but think that Kandy will have the Nittawela crowd behind them to sneak a win. Marija is just too good against any opposition here, but the problem for Kandy is that they might not have as much ball as they did last week. The Army fowards pile into the breakdown and their foreigners are hard runners. Fili’s defence will be tested a lot more, leaving him unavaiable for the quick wide ball that works so well. Nevertheless, the broken field running of Wilvara and Lavanga Perera should see Kandy scrape it home, also thanks to the boot of Fili.
That’s the only game on Sunday.
