Regaining champions Kandy Sports Club put up a strong effort and came close to clinch the League title for the seventh year in succession when they overpowered CH & FC by 16 points to 5 in their penultimate game of the Caltex inter-club ‘A’ division rugby tournament at Maitland Crescent on Saturday.

The title holders started off shakily and were trailing 3-5 at the breather, but made amends in the second half to maintain their unbeaten record in the season.

They scored their points off a goal, two drop goals, and a penalty while the lads from Maitland Crescent retaliated off a solitary try.

The hill capital team had the territorial advantage most of the time, but could not transform the opportunities into points and missed out at least four sure chances of scoring.

Kandy, who were under pressure during most part of the game, amidst stiff resistance from the home team could not cross over due to lack of harmonization, but yet, the golden boots of Nalaka Weerakkodi did the trick for them for the umpteenth time.

Kandy opened their account off a typical Weerakkodi drop goal in the 6th minute. Then CH & FC showed some aggression and placed their first points taking full advantage on Kandy winger Sameera Silva’s ill judgement on the high ball at the danger end. Lakala Perera went passing Weerakkodi to put CH ahead 5-3.

Upon resumption, things did not work to the script as the champions played straight into the hands of CH & FC, but they weren’t able to capitalise on the opposition’s mistakes.

With 15 minutes to go for the blast, it was scrum half Saliya Kumara who helped Kandy to take the lead with a try and Weerakkodi was successful in the conversion.

Then came the heartbreaker for the hosts as neutral referee Scott Herbert from the Arabian Gulf sent out their Fijian centre Jimmy Bonakora on red card due to dangerous play.

Weerakkodi got his act together with stunner as he came up with a 62 meter drop goal in the final stages of the match to take the game beyond the reach of the home team and immediately placed the icing on the cake off a penalty kick at the stoke of full time.

The game also saw two players viz Rukshan Wijesinghe of CH and Saliya Kumara of Kandy being sent on sin bin for unwarranted play.