• Kandy Sports Club pulled off one of the finest comebacks of the season so far when they came from behind to beat Havelock Sports Club in the dying moments of their inter club league rugby clash over the weekend.

Despite playing away from their fortress up in Nittawela, Kandy were still favourites to win at Havelock Park against the home team.

Havies are a project in progress under former Kandy great Saliya Kumara, but certainly did smell blood when one of the most senior Kandy players in Kavindu Perera got himself sent off following a silly tackle.

Trailing 10-20 at half time with a man down, Kandy were heading to their first defeat of the season, but then the boys from the hill capital showed exactly why they were champions for so many years with a stellar performance.

On a day everything was going against Kandy - a red card to Kavindu Perera and an unfortunate injury to their rock star Tarinda Ratwatte - Kandy still managed put up a second half performance to remember. It’s not just scoring those two tries to win the game, but the manner in which they defended in that second half was incredible.

Havies with the numbers in favour came so close to scoring so many times, but Kandy held on magnificently and when the moment arrived, they hit hard and registered one of the great wins.

This wasn’t just down to talent or training, it was the mentality of being champions.

When they came out to face Havies in that second half, they didn’t look like a team that was falling apart, but they looked like a bunch of soldiers ready for war.

Over the last decade or so, Kandy have raided the other clubs with financial super powers of Malik Samarawickrama.

Some of the best players from Colombo clubs ended up in Kandy. The likes of Danushka Ranjan (from Havies), Srinath Sooriyabandara (from Navy), Shehan Pathirana (from Havies), Jason Dissanayake (from CR), Kavindu Perera (from CR) and many more, made Kandy an untouchable team for years.

It was for the first time, in many years that Kandy didn’t bring in any big names from Colombo and in fact had some of their players leaving the club. However, one thing that hasn’t changed about the club is it’s killer mentality.