The seamen touched down 11 times as they recorded an impressive 67-6 win over a hapless CH side who crashed to another defeat at the ongoing Dialog Rugby League at the Racecourse grounds in Colombo yesterday.
Coming into the game with the underdog tag, CH&FC were looking to turn the tables and record their first win of the season. It started off well for them when they won a penalty on the 22m line after some good early pressure and fly half Janith Chandimal didn’t fail to deliver with the kicking duties as they drew first blood to lead 3-0.
As expected though, Navy SC took the ascendancy from then on and started to build a lot of pressure in the opposition 22m before they eventually scored their first try through flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa. Thilina Weerasinghe bisected the post to add the two points as Navy SC led 7-3, twenty minutes into the game.
Photo Album – Navy SC v CH & FC (Dialog Rugby LEague 2015/16)
CH were putting up a better show than expected during the early stages but the strong Navy lads were always going to be a threat as they recorded their second try of the game through Richi Dharmapala in the 22nd minute with Weerasinghe converting the try to lead 14-3.
The CH defence was running out of options late in the first half as the seamen kept attacking with their forwards which brought them three more tries before referee Rohan Fernando decided to blow the whistle for half time. The tries were scored by the speedsters, with Saliya Hadapangoda touching down first followed by the Tusker’s winger Dinusha Fernando who played at outside center and the winger Hashan Maduranga while Weerasinghe managed to convert only one of these three tries.
Half time – Navy SC 31: CH &FC 03
CH made a couple of substitutions in hope of a change of fortune in the second half but things did not get any better as Yoshitha Rajapaksa scored to set up an easy conversion for Thilina Weerasinghe to stretch the lead to 38-3. Two minutes later Sajith Saranga made a good run down the wing to score in the corner as the score line read 43-3 with Weerasinghe failing to add the extra points.
By this point the CH & FC players heads had fallen down as Richi Dharmapala broke through the tired looking CH defence to score under the post with Chanaka Chandimal adding the extra points to make it 50-3 in favour of the visitors.
Finally CH had something going their way as they won a penalty in the Navy half as Janith Chandimal bisected the posts beautifully to reduce the deficit for CH.
Navy SC hit back right away though, and it was centre Lee Keegel’s opportunity to get on the scoreboard as the lead stretched to 57-6 with substitute Dinesh De Silva adding the extra points.
The seamen rounded off a good performance with two more unconverted tries by substitutes Kanchana Perera and Dinesh Lakmal to end the game at 67-6.
Full time: Navy SC 67 (11T, 6C) – CH & FC 06(2P)
Point scorers: Yoshitha Rajapakse 2 tries, Richi Darmapala 2 tries, Sajith Saranga 1 try, Saliya Handapanagoda 1 try, Dinusha Fernando 1 try, Lee Keegel 1 try, Hashan Maduranga 1 try, Kanchana Perera 1 try, Dinesh Lakmal 1 try, Thilina Weerasinghe 4 conversions, Dinesh De Silva 1 conversion, Chanaka Chandimal 1 conversion. (Navy SC)
Janith Chandimal 2 penalties. (CH & FC)
