Even though the Kandy –
Havelocks game is done and dusted I thought about writing my bit.
If a Kandy fan in mid
2000's went to some magic hibernate sleep and woke up in time for
witness last weeks game, I am sure he would go nuts or kill him
self. He would rather think that teams have changed their jersey
colors or some thing has terribly gone wrong. In fact Kandy rugby has
some loop holes now which are penetrated so badly by other teams. By
taking nothing away from Havies superb effort, its still below par
performance from a team which used to local rugby well over a decade
or so. Any way lets focus on teams separately now.
Havelocks
Compared to last week
Havies put up a great show. They were brilliant in all the aspects in
the game , except for place kicking. Havies were quick to identify
their weakness from last week. Which was obviously the 9/10
combination. They brought Mithun Hapugoda to starting line up as
scrum half and he delivered what team needed. I think that move sat
the game up for home team. They replaced Mithun with veteran Zulki
Hameed as much as early in the second half. Zulki was in thick of
things as well providing spark to Havies back line.
Even though #9 provided
much needed support, Niroshan Fernando converted to a hero from a
villain last week. He had probably the game of the season and easily
outplayed his counterpart , who is none other than “country's best”
Fazil Marija. Niro played with confidence and it grew with the game.
His kicks to touch was excellent. As I watched closely, every time
Havies got a penalty, Niro kicked deep in to Kandy half which gave
torrid time for the visitors. Many people looked to have forgot what
Dhanushka Ranjan did. He tackled his foreign counterpart every time
and had a great game. Still he tries to go on his own at times , but
in the time to come he will come good at that as well.
If you think 9/10
combination was the thing that Havies came on top, its not true. As
far as the back line enjoyed a great evening, they should thank their
forwards for that. At the post match interview Muthuthatntri talked
about “aggression”. Thats what exactly they did. They were too
hot to handle and destroyed Kandy up front which laid the foundation
for the back. The scrummage and rolling mauls were treat to watch
while line outs were 100% perfect as in a dream.
Kandy
When
you loose its hard to identify what has exactly gone wrong, because
there are too many factors. I am not going to say Havies won because
of Kandy's weakness, but Kandy is not the side once they were. With
Andrew Porter injured within first few minutes of the game, forwards
looked flat and outplayed by Havies. Line outs were pathetic and they
were shy at the breakdowns.
So
thats my bit on the game and if you missed the game, I recommend you
guys to watch the second half recorded video on papare. Specially the
last try Havies scored was too brilliant to miss if you are a rugby
fan.
Comments
Post a Comment