Kandy Sports Club (better known as Kandy SC) is a Division 'A'

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

team, based in

Kandy Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...

, Sri Lanka, competing in the Dialog Rugby League. The club has been the most successful Sri Lankan club in the Sri Lanka Rugby Championship, winning 18 league titles in the last twenty years, which is the most wins by any club since the expanded competition commenced in 1950. The club has also won twenty

Clifford Cup The Clifford Cup is the most prestigious club rugby knockout tournament in Sri Lanka, and arguably the oldest rugby tournament in Asia. The Clifford Cup commenced in 1911 and has been played continuously since 1950, having completed 79 seasons. ...

s and in the period between 1995 and 2012 the club did not lose a Clifford Cup title, although in 1998 there was no tournament and in 2006 the club withdrew from the tournament. Kandy SC had won the league title for a record nine consecutive years between 2000 and 2009.

History

The Kandy Sports Club was founded in 1874 by a group expatriate coffee planters and others working in the plantations sector in and around

, as the Kandy Athletic, Boating, Cricket, Football and Dancing Club. In 1888, 14 years later, the name was changed to Kandy Sports Club when the club also started playing rugby, hockey and polo. The home grounds was Bogambara grounds until 1939 when the British Colonial Army took over during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Later the buildings were taken over by the General Hospital to house its offices, however Kandy SC continued to play rugby at the Bogambara grounds without a club house. In 1949 the Municipal Council released the garbage dumping ground area at

Nittawela Nittawela is a village in Sri Lanka. It is located within Central Province. See also *List of towns in Central Province, Sri Lanka Central Province is a province of Sri Lanka, containing the Kandy District, Matale District, and Nuwara Eliya D ...

to the club. From 1997 to 2009 Kandy SC has won every President's Trophy Knockout Tournament with the exception of the 1998 series, where it lost 26-30 in the final round to

Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club, also known as CR & FC, is a Division-A rugby union team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka which plays in the Dialog Rugby League. Established in 1922, the club has won the Clifford Cup Knockout Tournament fifteen times ...

(CR&FC). On March 10, 2010 the rugby team of the Kandy Sports Club left for a 15-day tour of

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The club played one match in

and two in

. This was the first time Kandy SC toured two different countries on one tour.

Stadium

Bogambara Stadium Bogambara Stadium ( si, බෝගම්බර ක්‍රිඩාංගනය) is a multi-purpose stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka It is one of the oldest grounds in the country. Stadium is currently used mostly for Rugby matches and hosted the g ...

(until 1939) * Nittawela Rugby Stadium

Players

The Kandy Sports Club was founded by a group expatriate coffee planters, however it has mainly had local players coming in from Kandyan school teams, namely

Trinity College, Kandy "Look to the End" , mottoes = , founder = John Ireland Jones , established = , type = Independent Private , affiliation = Church of Ceylon, Anglican , grade ...

and tradition in Sri Lanka, Kingswood College which was the first school to introduce rugby in Sri Lanka (by L. E. Blaze, an Old-Trinitian), though it gave up the game soon after and St. Anthony’s College which joined in as a progressive force. Other schools like Vidyartha College,

Dharmaraja College Dharmaraja College ( si, ධර්මරාජ විද්‍යාලය), founded in 1887, is a boys' school in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist school with around 300+ teaching staff and around 5000+ students. The school has many notable ...

and St. Sylvester's College have also had a long history in the sport while producing many players.

Current squad

The squad as of January 2022 Nigel Ratwatte Sanushka Abeywickrama Heshan Jansen Tharinda Rathwatte Dilushka Dange Srinath Sooriyabandara Chathura Zoysa Lasitha Attangoda Ali Mohamed Charles Praveen Thilina Bandara Roshan Weerarathne Jason Dissanayake *

Notable Foreign Players

* Kitioni Ratudrara - Fiji international. * Bati Penia - Fiji international. * Meli Nakauta - Fiji international. * Viliame Satala - Fiji international. * Apisai Nagata - Fiji international * Etonio Quro - Fiji international * Manasa Qoro - Fiji international * Tavita Tulagese *

Chris Cloete Christopher Anthony Cloete (born 15 February 1991) is a South African rugby union player, currently playing for Bath in the Gallagher Premiership. His regular position is flanker. Early life Cloete grew up in East London and was included in ...

Notable players

The Kandy Sports Club has had some notable players including players who have played internationally and internationals who have played for Kandy. Some notable players include: Sri Lanka skipper and dynamic Anthonian Priyantha Ekanayake with Lakshaman Ekanayake, Indrajith Bandaranayake, Nalaka Weerakkoddy, Leroy Fonseka, Manjula Pathirana, Shyam Sideek, Rizvi Suhaib, Inthi Marikar, Lasantha Wijesuriya, Fijians Kitioni Ratrudradra, Bati Penaia, Tony Greanny and Viliame Satala. Out of the key expat players over the years Meli Nakauta & Viliame Satala have represented Fiji in the World Cup in 1999, Manasa Qoro in 1987, while Kitioni Ratudrara, & Apisai Nagata have also represented Fiji at the highest level * Achala Perera * Amila Bandara * Ananda Kasthuriarachchi * Aravinda Udangamuwa * Bati Penaia * Buddhi Talagampola * Chamara Withanage * Dharshana Ettipola * Dilip Selvam * Erande Swarnatillake * Faizal Marija * Gayan Ratnage * Gayan Weeraratne * Haris Omar * Inthi Marikar * Imran Bisthamin * Indrajith Banaranayake * Kasun Silva * Kasun Yasaisuru * Kishore Jehan * Kitioni Ratrudradra * Krishantha Rajapakse * Kusal Rankothge * Lakshaman Ekanayake * Lalantha Karunatilake * Lasantha Wijesuriya * Leroy Fonseka * Malinga Godigamuwa * Manjula Pathirana * Mohammed Jabbar * Mohammed Rizvy * Mohammed Sabry * Mohammed Sheriff * Nalaka Weerakkody * Navinda Pullukuttiarachchi * Niranjan Ranasinghe * Pradeep Basnayake * Pradeep Liyanage * Prasad Chathuranga * Priyantha Ekanayake * Radhika Hettiarachchi * Rizvi Suhaib * Roshan Weeraratne * Sajith Saranga * Saliya Kumara * Sameera Silva * Sanjeewa Jayasinghe * Satala Vallimoni * Sean Wijesinghe * Senaka Bandara * Shashika Jayawardena * Shyam Sideek * Sumedha Jayasinghe * Tony Greanny * Viliame Satala

Coaches

* Maurice Perera * Johan Taylor * Tavita Tulagese * Neil Foote 2013 * Johan Taylor 2014 * Sean Mark Wijesinghe 2015/16

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Club honours

* Dialog League: ** Champions:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015,

2016-17 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first con ...

, 2017-18 2018-19 ** Runners up: 1954, 1955,

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

, 1978, *

: ** Champions: 1992,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, 1996,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007,

, 2009, 2010, 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, 2015,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

References

External links

Official website

Kandy SC Will Continue To Dominate Rugby

Kandy Sports Club — This Season’s Favourite

Kandy Sports Club head points table

Old Zahirians SC pull out from President's Trophy rugby tourney
{{Rugby union in Sri Lanka Rugby union teams in Sri Lanka Rugby clubs established in 1874 Sport in Kandy 1874 establishments in Ceylon