Kandy Sports Club’s dominance in the league plum would be challenged unlike never before by Colombo’s best rugby team Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club (CR&FC) when the two giants clash in their ‘Caltex’ inter-club league rugby tournament fixture at Longden Place this evening.

Kandy SC’s professional approach to the game and the services of a bunch of committed rugby players who eat, drink and sleep rugby have helped the team from Kandy to have a firm hold of the league trophy for the past 10 years. This amazing run of wins has not only helped Kandy SC to build an aura of invincibility around them but has also made the challenge faced by other teams, of conquering Kandy, look unreal.

CR and, occasionally, CH have thrown a challenge at Kandy. But, the force of that challenge, and the preparations aimed at toppling Kandy have always failed to meet the requirement.

This year, the scenario is quite different. CR&FC have in their ranks players who have peaked in their careers. Players like Dhanushka Botheju, Ashean Karthelis, Pavithra Fernando, Dhanushka Perera, Dushanth Lewke, Zulka Hamid, Chamara Vithanage (who represented Kandy SC a few seasons ago) and Mohammed Jabbar are playing the game of their lives. They seem to have reached the stage of playing the best possible rugby given their physiques and the years put in playing rugby.

CR’s coach John Carrington seems to have done enough drills with the players to rev up the pace of them.

CR’s back division comprises players in the likes of Dev Anand, Chamara Vithanage, Mohammed Jabbar and Riza Mubarak and are capable of making a difference during challenging situations and keeping the scoreboard ticking when there are points in the offing.

Anand has turned out to be a reliable place kicker and should keep CR’s hopes alive with his ability to find the uprights from whereever he puts boot to ball.

CR coach Carrington told ‘Sunday Island’ that he believed his charges sported a strong chance of beating Kandy SC this season.

Carrington said that his team, like what it was during this season, would be looking forward to playing running rugby. He however, said that Lasintha de Costa and Kasun de Silva would not make the team due to injuries. According to Carrington, the CR team has enough replacements for the injured come this crunch encounter which will decide the leader in the points table after eight weeks of gruelling rugby.

CR’s team manager Rohan Chintaka said that a win by CR&FC would boost rugby in Colombo.

"We need to control the game so that it is played at our pace and make the least number of mistakes. Even in past encounters, CR lost because it made more mistakes than Kandy SC," Chintaka said. He said that the players had all gelled together as a team and credited it to the training methods adopted by Carrington.

Kandy’s presence in the domestic rugby scene has been striking. The waves that Kandy SC creates in the rugby waters, where ever they play, have been humongous. There was a lot of excitement and speculation that Kandy SC might have lost some of its sting with the mass exodus of players who went and joined Navy SC this season.

The all important clash between the two teams proved that Kandy’s player reserves ran deeper than most people thought. The thinking of many in the rugby fraternity was that Kandy SC had lost its second string team to Navy and would be hampered in preparing for matches. Kandy SC showcased that their strength had not waned, despite losing players, when they cleared their first hurdle for the season which was against Navy SC. The ‘sailors’ were beaten convincingly 36-5.

Kandy have had a relatively easy run so far this season beating Air Force (27-6), Army SC (30-9), Police SC (67-16), CH&FC (37-3) and Havelocks SC (73-12).

They have experience which the other teams can’t even dream of having. Their match-winning three quarter line boasts of players in the likes of Fazil Marija (Fly half), Sanjeewa Jayasinghe (Winger), Pradeep Liyanage (Centre), Gayan Weeraratne (Centre), Sameera Silva (Winger) and Radeeka Hettiarachchi (Full back).

The team’s coach Johan Taylor said that the match against CR was a good challenge for the players. He opined that the players would look at the task at hand from the perspective of individuals and added, "Each player will be looking to challenge himself."

Taylor has mentioned in past interviews with this writer that the only way to raise the bar in terms of setting goals for the Kandy SC players would be to set individuals goals. His thinking is that a coach can’t set winning the championship as a goal when a team makes a habit of winning the championships year after year.

Taylor, however, said that he viewed the challenge coming from CR as if his team would play the national team.