The four-year wait is over

Clifford Cup knock-out rugby returns this week

The Nippon Paint Inter-Club Clifford Cup knock-out rugby tournament will be played after a lapse of four years beginning on Friday.

The tournament was last held in 2019, with Havelock Sports Club beating Sri Lanka Air Force 40-21 in the final.

History of the Cup

The oldest rugby tournament in Asia, the Clifford Cup commenced way back in 1911 and has been played continuously since 1950, having completed 79 tournaments. In 1911 Lady Elizabeth Clifford, the wife of the then acting Governor of Ceylon Sir Hugh Clifford, was interested in an annual rugby football fixture between Colombo and the Up Country.

She expressed her wish that a match take place in Colombo on her birthday on 26 August, between teams representing the United Services and All Ceylon, which later evolved into the Clifford Cup.

The Clifford Cup was awarded to the winner of a tournament between four teams, mainly Low Country, Up Country, Ceylonese and United Services. The competition then continued until 1938, when it was disrupted by the Second World War.

From 1950 onwards, the Clifford Cup was handled by Central Province Rugby Football Union (CPRFU) and in the years after the 1950s, the quarter-final encounters were played in the Central Hills with the semi-finals and final moved back to Colombo.

In 1985 however, Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) decided to award the Clifford Cup to the winners of a separate knock-out tournament, conducted amongst the ‘A’ Division Clubs, held at the end of the regular season.

In 1992, the Clifford Cup final was held in Kandy at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium, the first time the cup final was played outside of Colombo since 1957.

Kandy SC defeated Police SC 22-09 and was the first Cup win for the UpCountry club, which had been in existence for over 100 years.

The Kandy outfit was led by Maurice Joachim.

The cup final has been held in Kandy since 1992, with the exception being in 2006 when it was switched back to Colombo resulting in Kandy SC withdrawing from that year’s competition in protest. The same issue occurred in 2019 when Kandy was not allowed to host their games at Nittawela and they pulled out of the tournament.

Kandy Sports Club has won the Clifford Cup a record 22 times, including a run of ten consecutive titles between 1995 and 2005 (the competition was not held in 1998) and six consecutive years between 2007 and 2012. In 2006 and 2019 Kandy Sports Club and Navy SC both withdrew from the tournament – Kandy due to dispute over the ground allocation and Navy as their members were called up for national service duty.

Past winners of the Clifford Cup:

1950 - Havelock SC, 1951 - Havelock SC, 1952 - CR and FC, 1953 - Dimbula, 1954 -CR and FC, 1955 -CR and FC, 1956 -CR and FC, 1957 -CH and FC, 1958 -CR and FC, 1959 -CR and FC and Dimbula, 1960 -CH and FC, 1961 -Havelock SC, 1962 -CH and FC, 1963 -Havelock SC, 1964 -Havelock SC, 1965 -CR and FC, 1966 -CR and FC, 1967 -Havelock SC, 1968 -Havelock SC, 1969 -CR and FC, 1970 -Havelock SC and Police SC, 1971 -CR and FC, 1972 -Police SC, 1973 -Army SC and Police SC, 1974 -Havelock SC, 1975 -Army SC, 1976 -Havelock SC, 1977 -Havelock SC, 1978 -Havelock SC, 1979 -Police SC, 1980 -Police SC, 1981 -Havelock SC, 1982 -CH and FC, 1983 -CH and FC, 1984 -Police SC, 1985 -Police SC, 1986 -Air Force SC, 1987 -CR and FC, 1988 -CR and FC, 1989 -CR and FC, 1990 -CH and FC, 1991 -Police SC, 1992 -Kandy SC, 1993 -Kandy SC, 1994 -CH and FC, 1995 -Kandy SC, 1996 -Kandy SC, 1997 -Kandy SC, 1998 -No tournament, 1999 -Kandy SC, 2000 -Kandy SC, 2001 -Kandy SC, 2002 -Kandy SC, 2003 -Kandy SC, 2004 -Kandy SC, 2005 -Kandy SC, 2006 -CR and FC, 2007 -Kandy SC, 2008 -Kandy SC, 2009 -Kandy SC, 2010 -Kandy SC, 2011 -Kandy SC, 2012 -Kandy SC, 2013 -No tournament), 2014 -Navy SC, 2015 -Kandy SC, 2016 -Kandy SC, 2017 -Kandy SC, 2018 -Kandy SC, 2019 -Havelock SC, 2020—2022 -No tournament. By Shamseer Jaleel