2016–17 Dialog Rugby League season

The 2016–17 Dialog Rugby League was the 66th season of the top flight of Sri Lankan domestic rugby union competition. The competition is sponsored and broadcast by Dialog TV.

2016–17 Dialog Rugby League
Countries Sri Lanka
Date4 November 2016 – 11 March 2017
ChampionsKandy SC
Runners-upHavelock SC
Matches played56

The league consists of 8 clubs playing in a home-and-away double round robin. The standings at the end of the season determine the seedings for the 2017 edition of the Clifford Cup playoffs held in the spring.

The reigning champions of both last year's regular season and the 2016 Clifford Cup is Kandy SC, who claimed their 17th league title after finishing the 2015-2016 season undefeated, two games clear of runners up Havelock SC.

The 2016-17 season was the first season that the SLRFU introduced a Television Match Official (TMO) for selected domestic games.[1]

Kandy SC began the season in dominant form defeating CH&FC 96 to nil in their opening game before losing to Air Force SC the following week in a close game 24 to 21. Before the mid season break at the end of the year Kandy SC lost a second game, this time to Navy SC 32-37. Havelock SC commenced the year with a six-game winning streak, which ended with a 30-39 loss to Kandy SC on 18 December 2016.

In the second half of the season both Kandy SC and Havelock SC continued their respective unbeaten runs, with the title race coming down to the second last game of the season. The resultant win by Kandy SC 26-11 virtually secured the club the title, as whilst both clubs have the same number of wins for the season Kandy SC have more bonus points due to the size of their winning margins over the season. In the final round of the season Kandy SC finished in the same manner as they started by comprehensively defeating CH&FC 59-3, thereby retaining their League title for the 3rd year in a row.

Teams edit

Division 'A' clubs
Colours Club Established City Stadium Capacity* Titles (Last)**
 
Air Force Sports Club - Ratmalana Air Force Ground Ratmalana - -
 
Army Sports Club 1962 Panagoda Sri Lanka Army Rugby Ground Panagoda - 2 (1975)
 
Ceylonese Rugby & Football Club 1922 Colombo Longdon Place 5,550 13 (2002)
 
Colombo Hockey and Football Club 1892 Colombo Colombo Racecourse 40,000 10 (2000)
 
Havelock Sports Club 1915 Havelock Town Havelock Park - 14 (2012)
 
Kandy Sports Club 1888 Kandy Nittawela Rugby Stadium 25,000 17 (2016)
 
Navy Sports Club - Welisara Welisara Navy ground - 1 (2014)
 
Police Sports Club 1926 Bambalapitiya Police Park - 9 (1991)

League table edit

Table standings updated through 12 February 2017[2][3]

Season champions
Place Club Games Points Bonus
points
Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff
1 Kandy SC 14 12 0 2 633 257 +376 15 75
2 Havelock SC 14 12 0 2 470 210 +260 9 69
3 Navy SC 14 10 0 3 463 336 +127 7 57
4 CR & FC 14 6 0 7 454 338 +116 12 47
5 Air Force SC 14 6 0 7 333 411 −78 5 40
6 Army SC 14 5 0 8 359 383 −24 9 34
7 Police SC 14 3 0 10 289 389 -100 7 22
8 CH & FC 14 0 0 13 149 796 -647 2 2
Points are awarded to the teams as follows:
Win - 5 points
Draw - 2 points
4 or more tries - 1 point
Loss within 7 points - 1 point
Loss greater than 7 points - 0 points

Try and Points scorers edit

Leading Try Scorer[4]
Player Club Tries
Danushka Ranjun Kandy SC 16
Richard Dharmapala Kandy SC 12
Dulanjan Wijesinghe Navy SC 11
Leading Points Scorer[5]
Player Club Points
Dulaj Perera Havelock SC 171
Thilina Weerasinghe Navy SC 154
Thilina Wijesinghe Kandy SC 118

League Season edit

Week 1 edit

4 November 2016 Police 8-29 Navy Police Park  
report
5 November 2016 Air Force 5-29 Havelock Ratmalana Ground  
report
5 November 2016 CH & FC 0-96 Kandy Nittawela Ground  
report
6 November 2016 Army 24-25 CR & FC Colombo Racecourse  
report

Week 2 edit

12 November 2016 Police 12-37 Havelock Police Park  
report
12 November 2016 Air Force 24-21 Kandy Ratmalana Ground  
report
12 November 2016 CH & FC 12-39 Army Colombo Racecourse  
report
13 November 2016 Navy 21-13 CR & FC Welisara  
report

Week 3 edit

18 November 2016 Police 12-22 Air Force Police Park  
report
18 November 2016 Army 10-34 Kandy Colombo Racecourse  
report
19 November 2016 Havelock 10-6 CR & FC Havelock Park  
report
20 November 2016 Navy 55-3 CH & FC Welisara  
report

Week 4 edit

25 November 2016 Havelock 48-5 CH & FC Havelock Park  
report
26 November 2016 Army 24-25 Navy Army Ground  
report
26 November 2016 Kandy 34-9 Police Nittawela  
report
27 November 2016 CR & FC 57-20 Air Force Longdon Place  
report

Week 5 edit

2 December 2016 CH & FC 12-26 Air Force CH & FC Ground  
report
3 December 2016 CR & FC 31-26 Police Langdon Place  
report
4 December 2016 Havelock 37-26 Army Havelock Park  
report
4 December 2016 Navy 37-32 Kandy Welisara  
report

Week 6 edit

10 December 2016 CH & FC 26-45 Police Colombo Racecourse  
report
10 December 2016 Air Force 32-29 Army Ratmalana  
report
11 December 2016 Kandy 53-29 CR & FC Nittawala  
report


11 December 2016 Havelock 26-19 Navy Havelock Park  
report

Week 7 edit

16 December 2016 Air Force 8-22 Navy Ratamalana  
report
17 December 2016 CR & FC 83-13 CH & FC Colombo Racecourse  
report
17 December 2016 Police 24-27 Army Police Park  
report
18 December 2016 Kandy 39-30 Havelock Nittawala  
report

Week 8 edit

29 December 2016 CH & FC 3-80 Havelock CH & FC Ground  
report
30 December 2016 Navy 41-28 Police Welisara  
report
30 December 2016 Air Force 22-34 CR & FC Ratmalana  
report
31 December 2016 Kandy 50-19 Army Nittawala  
report

Week 9 edit

6 January 2017 Havelock 29-13 Police Havelock Park  
report
7 January 2017 Navy 29-21 Air Force Welisara  
report
7 January 2017 CR & FC 27-32 Kandy Longdon Place  
report
8 January 2017 Army 43-3 CH & FC Army Ground  
report

Week 10 edit

13 January 2017 Air Force 15-13 Police Ratmalana  
report
14 January 2017 CH & FC 3-62 CR & FC Longdon Place  
report
15 January 2017 Army 17-29 Havelock Ratmalana  
report
15 January 2017 Kandy 50-22 Navy Nittawala  
report

Week 11 edit

21 January 2017 Havelock 37-29 Air Force Havelock Park  
report
21 January 2017 Police 23-34 Kandy Police Park  
report
21 January 2017 CH & FC 23-81 Navy Longdon Place  
report
22 January 2017 CR & FC 20-24 Army Longdon Place  
report

Week 12 edit

28 January 2017 CR & FC 10-31 Havelock Longdon Place  
16:00 report
28 January 2017 Navy 17-30 Army Welisara  
16:00 report
29 January 2017 Kandy 73-13 Air Force Nittawela  
16:00 report
29 January 2017 Police 26-21 CH & FC Police Park  
16:00 report

Week 13 edit

3 February 2017 Air Force 53-17 CH & FC Ratmalana  
16:00 scorecard
3 February 2017 CR & FC 34-37 Navy Longdon  
16:00 scorecard
5 February 2017 Army 21-27 Police Army Ground  
16:00 scorecard
5 February 2017 Havelock 11-26 Kandy Havelock Park  
18:30 scorecard

Week 14 edit

11 February 2017 CH & FC 3-59 Kandy CH & FC Ground  
16:00 report
11 February 2017 Police 22-23 CR & FC Police Park  
16:00 report
11 February 2017 Army 26-43 Air Force Army Ground  
16:00
12 February 2017 Navy 28-36 Havelock Welisara  
16:00

References edit

  1. ^ Ramakrishnan, Karuppiah (28 October 2016). "Dialog Inter Club Rugby League 2016/2017: Police – Navy set for kick-off". Ceylon Today. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  2. ^ Fixtures & Results - Dialog Rugby League 2016/17
  3. ^ Dialog Rugby League 2016/2017 | TheFuture. Today
  4. ^ "Try & Points scorers - Dialog Rugby League 2017/18".
  5. ^ "Try & Points scorers - Dialog Rugby League 2017/18".