The 2nd day of the Dialog Mercantile Rugby 7s tournament came to an end with teams burning it out in the field on a hot sunny day at the CR&FC grounds.
The opening of the day was a shield game against Ceylon Tobacco and Expo Lanka which Expo Lanka walked off victorious quite convincingly beating the CTC 24 points nil.
The results of the shield matches played during the day are as follows;
Ceylon Tobacco 00 – Expo Lanka 24
Central Finance 12 – HDPL 07
Amana Takaful 29 – LB Finance 00
Ceylon Tea Brokers 00 – Rainco 21
HSBC ‘B’ 07 – NDB Bank 19
Virtusa 00 – Hidramani 26
Ceylon Tobacco 15 – Central Finance 12
Expo Lanka 19 – HDPL 00
Amana Takaful 00 – Ceylon Tea brokers 14
LB Finance 00 – Rainco 19
NDB Bank 05 – Attune Lanka 05
Hidramani 10 – Millennium IT 00
Game number 9 for the second day saw a group D game in the Bowl segment of the tournament where Commercial Bank took on Brandix. It was an evenly poised game and a good one at it. Both teams looked to take advantage of the opponent’s mistakes and eventually Commercial bank got a hold of the game beating Brandix 10 points to 07.
It was a cracker of a game between Janashakthi Insurance and Hutch Telecommunications. A high scoring game it turned out to be as Janashakthi won the game with a massive margin beating Hutch 36 points nil. Hutch was totally out played by the Insurance players and never seemed to catch up or even, score a single point.
The results of the Bowl games for the day are as follows;
Commercial Bank 10 – Brandix 07
Commercial credit 05 – Belco Asia 12
Ceylinco insurance 00 – Kandurata Umbrella 17
Janashakthi 36 – Hutch 00
Commercial Bank 19 – Amana bank 07
Brandix 00 – Entrust 19
SL Insurance 19 – Commercial leasing 07
NTB 07 – HSBC ‘A’ 10
Commercial credit 24 – Ceylinco insurance 00
Belco Asia 07 – Kandurata Umbrella 05
CDB 05 – Janashakthi 07
The opening cup game for the day was between MAS and John Keells Holdings. These two market giants in the corporate sector of Sri Lanka looked to level out the waters on the field of rugby and it was MAS who won the race in the end beating JKH 50 points nil. JKH was always playing a game of catch up rugby from the start against a very strong MAS team. MAS possessed a very promising team comprising of a few big names in the likes of Fazil Marija, Saaliya Kumara, Mohommed Sheriff, Nigel Ratwatta, Gayan Weerakoddi and Shehan Pathirana to name a few.
It was some intense and interesting rugby from the very start in the Cup stage of the tournament.
The game against MAS A and Dialog A was definitely a match one would not forget had he been at the CR&FC grounds. Two evident favorites in the tournament took on each other and it was a top class performance by both teams displaying a high breed of 7s rugby on offer. The Dialog team led by Former Royal player Mushin Faleel kicked off against the men in white and it was hell on the field as both teams looked to attack and defend alternatively, not making things easy for either team. It was MAS’ Saliya Kumara who broke through the Dialog defense and crossed the line to score the first try of the game. Mithun Hapugoda scored first for the Dialog team which made the points leveled for the two teams 5 -5. At the half way point the scores read 10 – 05 in favor of the Dialog team but at the end of a real tug of war of a game MAS ended victorious beating Dialog 19 points to 17.
It was another interesting game against Nation Lanka and MAS ‘B’. Navy and Sri Lankan fullback Nuwan Hettiarachchi scored first for MAS which was booted to add 2 more points, MAS starting the scoring adding 7 points on the board a few minutes into the game. Nation Lanka was soon to counter this when Dulaj Perera nipped around to find space and score to be contorted under the post by him leveling the two teams 7 – 7. Eventually Nation Lanka Finance was leading at the latter end of the game 19 points to 14 but a last minute try by MAS who went down fighting managed to draw the game 19 all.
The results of the Cup games for the day are as follows;
MAS A 50 – JKH B 00
Dialog A 14 – Sampath bank 12
Nation Lanka 05 – Dialog B 05
JKH B 21 – Access B 00
MAS A 19 – Dialog A 17
JKH B 00 – Access A 39
Nation Lanka 19 – MAS B 19
JKH A 31 – Dialog B 07
MAS B 33 – Access B 00
JKH B 28 – Samapath Bank 17
Nation Lanka 10 – JKH A 17
MAS A 14 – Access A 07
Today is the final day of the Dialog Mercantile rugby 7s 2014 which will host the final stage matches of the tournament in the Cup, Bowl and shield categories. One can only expect the best Mercantile rugby on offer Sunday as the best teams take on each other at the crunch end of the tournament Be there at the CR&FC grounds, Longden place to catch the action.
