| 2016–17 Dialog Rugby League | |
| Countries: |  Sri Lanka |
| Date: | 4 November 2016 – 11 March 2017 |
| Champions: | Kandy SC |
| Runnersup: | Havelock SC |
| Matches: | 56 |
| Prevseason: | 2015–16 |
| Nextseason: | 2017–18 |
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.
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.
| 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) | |||
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 |
| Leading Try Scorer[4] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Club | Tries | |
| Kandy SC | 16 | ||
| Kandy SC | 12 | ||
| Navy SC | 11 | ||
| Leading Points Scorer[5] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Club | Points | |
| Havelock SC | 171 | ||
| Navy SC | 154 | ||
| Kandy SC | 118 | ||