MAS Holdings ‘A’ clinches Mercantile Rugby 7s

Tuesday, 13 August 2013 00:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Text and photos by M. Farook Lantra MAS Holdings Ltd’s ‘A’ team staged a stupendous performance to win the Dialog Mercantile Rugby 7s, beating last year’s champions Nation Lanka Finance ‘A’, 31 points (three goals and two ties) to 17 (one goal and two tries). The tournament was played at the CR&FC grounds on 10 and 11 August. At lemons, MAS ‘A’ was 12 points while Nation Lanka was 10. After the turnaround, MAS ‘A’ changed its game plan and had a comfortable lead of 31 points until the last whistle. The try scorers for MAS ‘A’ were Gayan Weeraratne with two tries, whilst Vellaran, Pradeep Liyanage and Hettipola scored one try each, while for Nation Lanka Finance’s Shenal Dias, Chulan and Dabare scored one try each.

Fazil Marija, skipper of MAS ‘A’, who played the game with his heart out in the final was adjudged the Man of the Final while the most Outstanding Player of the Tournament was won by S. Sooriyabandara of John Keells Holdings ‘A’. The Chief Guest was main sponsor Dialog Axiata’s Head of Business - Television Services Chirantha De Zoysa along with Mercantile Rugby Football Association (MRFA) President Vasantha Ramanayake. Over 375 participants from 34 leading mercantile companies in Sri Lanka took part in this grand finale. The champions were given Canvas 2 phones from Micromax. All other winners and runners-up were also presented with mobile phones by Micromax together with their national distributors, Metropolitan Telecom Services Ltd., and MRFA. Media assistance was provided by Office Network Ltd., distributors for Brother Office Automation products for Sri Lanka. Referees from the Sri Lanka Rugby Referees’ Society of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union did a commendable job during the two day tournament. The final was handled by Nizam Jamaldeen. A fireworks display was held after the awards ceremony. The third place of the cup was won by John Keells ‘B’ who beat Dialog ‘A’ 26-0. The Plate was won by John Keells ‘B’ who beat Commercial Bank 24 points to 20, the Bowl was won by Citizen Development Bank who beat Commercial Credit 17 points to 12, while the Shield award was won by Brandix who beat Amana by 24 to 5.