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Monday, 11 December 2017 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shamseer Jaleel
The Havelocks Sports Club, who are going through an inconsistent season, pulled off a narrow 35-30 win over their traditional rivals CR&FC.
Kandy skipper Gayan Weeraratne escapes a Dulanjana Wijesinghe tackle
Meanwhile, the Kandy Sports Club scored their fifth consecutive bonus point win when they got the better of Navy while CH&FC completed their second win of the season when they got the better of Sri Lanka Air Force. Meanwhile, Police continued their disappointing season with yet another defeat to Army.
Havelocks SC 35 pointsCR&FC 30 points
Havelocks led 19-13 at halftime courtesy of two yellow card offences. Havies scored first through Nishon Perera with Dulaj Perera adding the extra points but CR soon equalised through Gayan Dilshan with Tharinda Ratwatte converting the try. Ratwatte’s penalty gave CR a 10-7 lead. A try from Madushanka put the Park Club in the lead at 12-7 as Perera missed the conversion.
Following a number of attacks by Havies, they finally scored through their burly Number 8 Lasindu Karunathilleke with Perera adding the extra points to take them into the half at 19-13. A Ratwatte penalty increased the gap for CR but Chanaka Bandara got the lead back for the Park Club as they went ahead 24-16. A try from Niroshan Fernando and Perea’s conversion took the scored to 29-16 but repeated infringements by Havelocks saw referee Dinka Peiris take action.
CR then secured a 30-29 lead before Perera hit back for Havies to grab a 32-30 lead for his team. CR prop forward Kokila Sambandapperuma was given a yellow card for a dangerous tackle with Perera converting the penalty to nail down the victory.
CH outclass Air ForceCH&FC 43 pointsAir Force 31 points
CH scored their second win this season when they beat Air Force 43-31 in a high-scoring encounter after leading 19-14 at halftime.
Air Force’s kicker Chatura Seneviratne gave his outfit the lead with two consecutive penalties. This put the CH outfit on the back foot with them committing a number of handling errors.
Air Force centre Jehan Seelagama, who was surprisingly left out by the national selectors against the Hong Kong Under-19 team, showed his class when he created a chance through a superb move, covering more than 30 metres to offload the ball for Seneviratne to score a try and account for all 11 of Air Force’s points.
Havies flyhalf Dulaj Perera aviods a tackle against CR
CH hit back twice through Avishka Lee and Yoshitha Rajapaksa, with both tries being converted by Samuel Maduwantha, to take a 14-11 lead. Seneviratne put over another penalty but Sajith Saranga powered his way through to give his team a 19-14 lead at halftime.
Maduwantha’s penalty increased the lead for CH but the Airmen bounced back through Padamasanka Weerasinghe. Yoshitha Rajapaksa, who had a grand game, scored his second try with Maduwantha adding the extra points. Pabasara Hewage scored the last Air Force try but there was time for one Avantha Lee try to take CH through. Rajapaksa and Lee Keegal both displayed outstanding rugby in attack as well in defence. The game was refereed by Aaqil Jamaldeen.
Kandy unstoppableKandy SC 33 pointsNavy SC 19 points
Kandy scored their fifth bonus point win plus their third consecutive win in Kandy, adding the extra points. This time it was the Sailors who were at the receiving end, losing out 33-19 after Kandy were up 21-13 heading into halftime.
Navy played magnificently, putting the Kandy team on the back foot for more than 20 minutes of each half. But Kandy’s three-quarter line looked simply outstanding and was unstoppable. Dulanjana Wijesinghe, Musheen Faleel and Mohamed Abzal were exceptional. Thilina Weerasinghe also played his part through four penalties plus a clean conversion.
Gayan Weeraratne was omnipresent for Kandy. He created many good moves which ended in tries for Kandy. He was well supported by Nigel Ratwatte, Richard Dharmapala and Fazil Marija. In forwards play, Antonian Yakoob Ali stood out.
Kandy scored their first try through Wilwara and second through Marija. Both were converted by Ratwatte who started in a fullback position over Thilina Wijesinghe. The sailors reduced the gap through a Thilina Weerasinghe penalty but Yakoob Ali scored his first try which was goaled by Ratwatte to create a huge 21-3 lead.
But Navy SC fly half Mohamed Abzal, who displayed quality running rugby, outfoxed the Kandy defence to touch down with Thilina adding the extras to reduce the gap to 21-10. Three more penalties from Thilina for Navy reduced the gap further and created a competitive encounter for the spectators. But Kandy was unstoppable. Two consecutive tries from Thilina Wijesinghe and Ratwatte sealed the game for Kandy. The referee for the game was Priyantha Gunaratne.
The unbeaten Kandy team will meet second-placed Havelocks on 16 December in an encounter which will decide if there will be any unbeaten outfits left after round one.
Army through
Army pulled off a good 32-18 win over Police. At halftime the scores were tied 8-8.
The visiting Hong Kong Under-19 outfit dismantled their Sri Lankan opponents 37 points (7 tries, 1 conversion) to 8 points (1 try, 1 penalty) in an Asian Rugby Championship Division I encounter played under hot and humid conditions at the racecourse rugby grounds yesterday.
At halftime the winners led 22-3. The return leg will be played on 16 December at the Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC), which offers a clear edge to the Hong Kong outfit to take their fifth consecutive Asian Rugby Championship. The winner of this series will qualify for the 2018 Junior World Rugby Tournament as Asian Qualifiers. The Sri Lanka youth team has only once in history made it to the Junior Rugby World Cup - in 2001 in Chile under the captaincy of Thomian Jeevan Goonatilake.
Hong Kong winger Marcus Ramage completed a hat-trick while the other tries were scored by Alex Nisbet, Shaune Chong, Gregor Ramage and Jay Cooke. But only one of Paul Aliter’s seven conversions was successful, which was good news for the visitors who otherwise would have had to contend with the ignominy of a 50-point thrashing.
For Sri Lanka penalty duties were handled by Chathura Seneviratne with Theekshana Dasaanayake scoring the only try. Harith Bandara, Reshane Madena, Mohideen and Avishka Priyankara stood out for Sri Lanka.
Hong Kong Head Coach Stephen Dowse said: “We’re happy to get the win but also frustrated that we left quite a few points on the park, which I guess is a good statement of where this group is at right now. When we stuck to our processes and stuck to the task we looked good and that is our challenge for the second game. Today showed that our systems are right and that when we stick to them they can’t handle it very well. We need a bit more discipline, as a team and as individuals. Sometimes when you get a few tries on the board you go off-script, that’s the rugby that Sri Lanka thrives on,” said Dowse.
Sri Lanka High Performance Director Inthi Marikar said: “We trained for four to five days and trying to beat Hong Kong is not realistic. The Hong Kong lads are all very competitive and they have been together for a longer time than us. I am not trying to give an excuse. I would like to thank Havies and CR for giving their best players. We need to get real if we want to compete at the Asian level and achieve something and go beyond Asia for the JWRT Under-20 next year.”
Marikar went on to say that missing out on Gemunu Chethiya was a big blow for the team. (SJ)
