Playing against Kandy was the biggest scare any club rugby team in Sri Lanka could face throughout the past three decades.
Once dubbed a mediocre team, Kandy Sports Club pulled their socks up in the mid ’90s to become the most successful team in Sri Lanka’s 146-year rugby history by producing some of the most incredible outfits for the island nation’s oval ball game.
Until the late ’80s, the club regularly suffered heavy defeats against Colombo-based teams as well as the tri-forces and Police SC. However, times changed in the ’90s and Kandy came into the limelight and rose to become a powerhouse.
Coached by their very own hometown legend Fazil Marija along with his one-time Tuskers teammate Henry Terence, the outfit is led by pocket rocket Srinath ‘Soori’ Sooriyabandara.
As for their opponents – particularly the table toppers CR & FC, Havies, et al. – they may well have some sleepless nights ahead, knowing the formidable challenge that awaits them when facing the dominant Kandy SC side, who have finally got some fresh schoolboy talent of the likes of Isipathana duo Shaahid Zumri and Kenula Hettiarachchi, Bradby-winning Trinity skipper Thisanga Dissanayake, and Vidyartha skipper Gayan Perera.
Nittawela, Kandy on a usual Saturday or Sunday evening is as dull as ditchwater. However, when the club rugby season is in full swing, the sporting cathedral of Kandy – the Nittawela fortress – comes to life as firecrackers go up in the air with raucous crowds yelling and chanting their favourite club to victory until their throats run dry.
Arguably the island nation’s only premier rugby club to have a genuine die-hard group of supporters from all walks of life, Kandy SC garners support from the vegetable vendor at the municipal market in Kandy to the topmost CEO of giant corporates. Such is the dynamic of this club that crowds fill up stands and roads are jammed with traffic as all roads lead to Nittawela on match day.
The Kandy Sports Club was founded in 1874 by a group of expatriate coffee planters and others working in the plantations sector in and around Kandy as the Kandy Athletic, Boating, Cricket, Football, and Dancing Club.
Fourteen years later in 1888, the club’s name was changed to Kandy Sports Club when they started playing rugby, hockey, and polo as well. The Bogambara Ground was their homebase until 1939, when the British Colonial Army took over during the Second World War.
Later, the buildings were taken over by the Kandy General Hospital to house its offices; however, Kandy SC continued to play rugby at the Bogambara Ground without a clubhouse.
In 1949, the Kandy Municipal Council released a garbage-dumping ground area in Nittawela to the club, which has now become a world-class facility and the spiritual home of generations of ruggerites.
Kandy SC is the most successful Sri Lankan club rugby outfit, winning 18 league titles in the last two decades, which is the most wins by any club since the expanded competition commenced in 1950.
The club has also won 20 Clifford Cups, and in the period between 1995 and 2012, they did not lose a Clifford Cup title. Kandy also won the league title for a record nine consecutive years between 2001 and 2009.